Stepping Into The Sky
by Raul Ficticious
Summary: Dobby does not succeed in rescuing Harry and the order is crushed by Voldemort. Harry is sealed and 500 years into the future he is found by the crew of the ship, Serenity.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Just a fan. Don't own anything and certainly not making any money out of this.**

**Chapter 1: Time flies.**

"It's over, it's all over."

The words were whispered from a heart-broken Molly Weasley as she stared, dully, at the broken corpse of her beloved son Ronald Weasley.

Everything had happened so quickly. One moment she had felt an intrusion in the wards and had hurried to investigate. Their wards were strong and only someone with permission to enter could cross them. Not to mention they had the unbreakable fidelius charm in place.

She spotted an unmoving figure among the weeds and with dread growing in her heart she moved faster, praying it wasn't one of her children. Her mind came crashing halt when she recognized the body and that was when it happened.

A cracking sound and a rush of static electricity was all the warning they had before the wards were brought down with a boom. Spells began to shower upon their old house and Molly just stood, her wand rolling out of her palm and falling to the ground, as a one-sided battle broke out between the order and the horde of death eaters that were descending down on them.

Earlier in the day a badly wounded Fleur had tumbled out of the fire-place and since that time her husband and eldest son, Bill, had gone missing. Their names were resting at mortal peril on their family clock but Molly took solace in the fact that it wasn't pointing towards dead. She immediately sent a patronus to Remus and an hour later he had arrived with backup looking grim.

There was no news about Arthur and Bill but what they did know was that Shell cottage had been burned to the ground.

That was about thirty minutes ago. Then she had felt the intrusion in the wards and now she was staring at the mutilated body of her youngest son.

It was over, they had lost.

She didn't even react when she saw the Burrow come crashing down after a powerful blasting hex destroyed all the enchantments that had prevailed for years.

"Mum!" screamed Ginny running away from the battle. "Mum we have to get out of here!" She saw the body of her brother and felt sick. She tried her best not to think about it and turned back to her mother.

"And go where Ginny?" Molly said softly. "It is over, we have lost."

Ginny grabbed her mother roughly and looked at her straight in the eye. Her clothes were torn, she was dirty and she was bleeding profusely from her arm. "Mum," she said fiercely, her eyes burning with pain and passion. "We have to-"

Her words were cut off as the killing curse smashed into her back and she crumbled to ground in front of her mother's feet, dead.

Molly didn't react. She gently wrapped her arms around her daughter and laid her down beside her brother. She glanced towards the battlefield and realized that the battle was over and there was a crowd of figures, dressed in black robes, marching towards her.

The order of the phoenix was done for.

"All is lost," she whispered with a smile.

"That's right you filthy muggle lover," cackled Bellatrix Lestrange. "The dark lord has won!" The terrible witch raised her wand, her eyes alive with insanity and Molly Weasley's blood sprayed out of her neck coating the laughing woman. The death eaters watched with delight as the woman's body fell atop her children and her head rolled some distance away. The dark lord's men and women cheered wildly.

"Let us leave Bella," said Lucius, his eyes sparkling maliciously. "One yet remains."

One by one with a twist and a crack they dis-apparated to Malfoy Manor for the final act. Lucius was the last one to leave. He glanced around one final time soaking in the bloody scene in front of him before disappearing.

On one side there was a tale of death and annihilation and on the other, tales of victory and glory.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry Potter was chained to the wall in the basement of Malfoy Manor. He had been given a five minute break to let the pain of his latest torture session to sink in. He didn't know how long had passed but he could count the number of death eaters that had come and gone to use his body as a tool to relieve their perverse need to cause pain. Most relieved their need for violence through physical means and turned his body into a punching bag and others decided to see how long he could stay sane under the cruciatus curse. And then there were a few who knew how to torture. Harry was dreading the time when those perverted bastards carried out their threats to rape him into madness. Just the thought of that kind of torture flooded his body with terror.

His was hanging by his wrists and his head hung limply on his badly bruised neck. His body posture literally screamed submission and his eyes were closed, fluttering open now and then.

Severus Snape looked at the bloodied body with detachment. He had failed to stay true to his promise and now Harry Potter's life was to end. There was only one thing left to do, flee.

Rudolphus Lestrange burst into the cellar bring a group of death eaters with him.

Harry's breathing quickened and he braced himself for the pain to begin. But instead of torturing him Lestrange gestured towards Harry and commanded "Bring him, it is time."

Blurred images moved in front of his eyes. They grabbed his arms and a scream tore out of his throat. His response to pain had become autonomous. They would hurt him and he would react the way they wanted him to because if he didn't scream they would hurt him even more. He felt the shackles on his hands being taken off and rough hands began to drag him out of his cell.

Something was happening, his brain told him. With great effort he pulled his mind back to reality and was rewarded with an avalanche of pain which hadn't seemed so bad just a few minutes back. He wanted to scream in agony but all that he could do was twitch and cough up blood.

"Quit it half-blood," snarled the death eater and backhanded him across his cheek.

They had almost escaped Malfoy manor but it was not to be. Dobby had come to their rescue and had helped Luna Lovegood and Ollivander to escape first. Then the elf had been ready to take Harry, Hermione and Ron with him but suddenly there was a silver knife embedded in his heart before he could make an attempt. Dobby had fallen, dead.

In their shock they failed to react when the remaining death eaters retaliated and Ron was struck down by Yaxley and the life was stomped out of Hermione, literally. Bellatrix had crushed the girl's neck with her heel over and over again until she there was nothing left to stomp on. Harry had just seen his best friends murdered right in front of his eyes.

"How does it feel Harry?" questioned Lord Voldemort languidly from his throne as Harry was forced to his knees in front of the dark lord.

Harry mustered whatever strength he had left and rolled his eyeball to look at the man. The amount of hatred that rushed into him gave him the power to spit blood at the dark lord's feet.

Seconds later Harry felt a foot smash into his face breaking his nose. The force of the kick sent him reeling backwards and he fell on his back. He no longer had the energy to scream.

There were angry yells and calls for his decapitation from the crowd of death eaters after that insult but Voldemort just smiled. He calmly got up from his throne and knelt next to Harry.

The dark lord gently stroked Harry's cheek and Harry jerked his head away.

"You have lost Harry," he said maliciously. "All your friends are dead and when I say all I literally mean all."

Harry's breathing became faster. The order was safe! He thought desperately. They were under the fidelius charm and yet he could sense that the dark lord was telling the truth. His eyes scrunched up in anguish and he wanted nothing more than to somehow reach up and squeeze the life out of this monster above him.

"Two choices stand before you: join me or suffer for all eternity," he said softly.

Harry looked into those serpentine eyes and managed to choke out one word. "_Never."_

"I'm so glad you feel that way," he crooned and straightened up. "Bind him," he commanded.

Lucius and Bellatrix grabbed him and strapped him to the centre of an elaborate rune circle.

"Does your broken mind still remember the prophecy Harry?" Harry didn't respond but his eyes said it all. "Hmmm- I guess you do. Well it says that neither can live while the other survives, in other words, if I don't kill you, I can't die."

The words pierced through Harry's mind and dread began to spread through his gut.

"Ooh it looks like you understand!" said Voldemort in delight. He grabbed a fist full of Harry's hair, yanked his face up and looked into his dull green eyes. "I win Potter," he whispered and once again tried to penetrate the boy's mind. This time he succeeded. He saw Harry's entire life flash past his eyes and at long last, he let Harry's head fall back on the floor. He had learnt whatever he needed to know.

"You had so much spunk the first few days Harry," said Voldemort, disappointed. "You kept me out of your mind and took out so many of my death eaters without even using magic. I had hoped you would last longer than a week but sadly you didn't."

He stared down at the boy dispassionately before sighing and stepping back. "Begin," he commanded.

Lucius, Bellatrix and he, himself took their positions around Harry and placed their wands at the edge of the rune circle. "_Necto,"_ all three said at once and began to pour their magic into the runes.

The runes, one by one began to glow red. Once all the runes began to glow, together they said, "_Mutatio."_

The runes changed colour to black and the suffocating power in the room jumped. Their wands were vibrating violently but they held firm. Suddenly the power dropped and they screamed, "_Signum!"_

The runes began to smoke and the power in the room increased to such levels that half the death eaters in the room dropped to their knees gasping for breath and it was at that moment Harry Potter's screams began to reverberate throughout the room. One by one the runes floated above the floor and were burned into his body and after each rune disappeared into Harry the structure of his body visibly began to change.

The death eaters looked on in wonder as a film seemed to settle over the 17-year-old boy and distorted everything about him.

It wasn't long after that when Harry's screams were silenced and the pulsating magic began to die down.

What the death eaters saw shocked them to their core. Instead of a living breathing Harry Potter, there was a long brown slab in his place with three runes etched into it. Those who had some knowledge in ancient runes recognized them as the runes for life, eternity and liberty.

Voldemort knelt next to the slab and said, "It is easy to undo this seal but I'm going to make sure such an option never arises. You will live forever and maybe you will remain conscious or maybe you won't. But you won't ever be a thorn in my side again. Goodbye Harry James Potter."

The dark lord levitated the slab in front of him and took it out to the gardens of Malfoy Manor. He then pointed it towards the sky under the watchful eyes of all his followers.

"_Dissiliatin tenebrasmundi,"_ roared Voldemort and the slab took off into the sky. It went higher and higher and just when it seemed like it was about to fall back to the ground, there was a roaring sound and the slab that was Harry Potter went supersonic. It kept rising into the sky until it could no longer be seen.

Harry Potter was lost to the world forever.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Serenity**

"Zoe, pack down the cargo. Wash, heat up Serenity. We're blowing out of this mess in a half hour." said Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of the firefly class vessel Serenity_._

"Already there," said Wash, heading up to the bridge.

"Come on Kaylee; let's go get our wayward babes."

After the captain and their mechanic left, Zoe got down to work. "River honey, could you please come out now? I gotta load the goods in and I can't do it when you're in there."

"No," said River Tam petulantly. "The hair is a problem."

"Shepherd's gone back to his room and he's tied up his hair _and_ he promises to keep it away from you," said Zoe suppressing the urge to laugh.

Very carefully River peeked out of the hidden compartment and looked for signs of a mass of white hair.

"See," said Zoe earnestly, "He's gone."

"Doesn't mean his brains are safe," she said worriedly.

"Maybe not, but right now you gotta help me load this cargo in understand?"

River rolled her eyes but picked one end of the long, rectangular containers anyway.

"Where's Simon?" she asked.

"They're getting Jayne who is basking in the glory of being a hero," said Zoe with a smirk.

River let out a string of explicit words describing the trigger happy man.

"Well that about sums him up," agreed Zoe with a laugh as they pushed the goods into the hole. River glared at Zoe too and they quietly loaded the rest of the containers.

They were going to put in the last one when River suddenly dropped her end and her eyes widened in terror.

"Not real, it's not real," she breathed out.

"River?"

"Can't, won't, Earth... _It's not supposed to exist!"_ she screamed and backed away from the cargo.

"River honey, calm down," said Zoe firmly. "What's wrong?"

River pointed a shaky finger at the last container and whispered, "It's not real, it can't be real… bones and flesh!"

Zoe didn't know how to handle the mentally unstable child. Only Simon could calm her down in such situations.

River's eyes began to tear up and she sank to the floor. "We have to destroy it, we have to break it!"

"We're not breaking or destroying anything. We need to deliver those goods intact or we won't get paid."

"There should be three but there are four," cried River hysterically.

"Wha-?" Zoe then realized with a start that River was right. Bernoulli had mentioned that there were three containers but what they had was four containers. She took a closer look at the last one and came to a startling realization that it was just a slab. She dusted off the top layer and found some faded inscriptions on it.

"How did you know?" she asked River mystified.

But River wasn't listening. "It's an anomaly. Destroy it, crush it, cast it out." She just kept rambling so Zoe just wrapped her arms around the shivering girl and waited for the captain to get back. She just prayed that the Preacher wouldn't make a sudden appearance. She didn't even want to imagine what would happen to River then!

She was extremely relieved when she saw Mal coming up the ramp and then she saw the state the doctor was in.

"What in the rutting hell happened!"

"River!" cried out Simon and hurriedly limped over to his sister. "What happened?"

"Ruddy mudders," growled Jayne.

"What happen'd to River, Zoe?" asked a worried Kaylee.

It shouldn't be here Simon, it shouldn't," River insisted.

"All of you quiet down!" yelled Mal. He then walked over to com, "Get us off this moon and set a course for Ariel Wash," he said. "And then I want everybody down in the cargo bay on the double."

There was flurried moment on the ship as Zoe began to explain the situation to Mal and Kaylee while Jayne was still in shock about the events that had just occurred in past day.

Inara, Shepherd Book and Wash came down together and it took all of Zoe's and Simon's efforts to keep River from freaking out.

"Can the chaos stop for just a moment?!"

"Ruddy mudders."

"Jayne," warned Mal.

"Now if there are four containers we just deliver four instead of three. Might even get us a better pay off," he said to Zoe and then turned to the doctor. "Doc, you might have to increase your efforts in keeping your sister calm!"

River muttered more expletives under her breath.

"And wash her mouth while you at it," he added. "Did the academy teach her how to swear too!?"

"But Mal it's just a slab of... well clay I guess," said Wash. "Don't you think Bernoulli will think that we've screwed him over?"

"Maybe it was just used as a support for the merchandise," said Jayne. "There's some delicate stuff in there you know."

"River thinks it's something more Cap'n," said Kaylee.

"There's something written here," murmured Wash as he examined the slab, "But it's unlike any language that we know of." He ran his finger gently on the symbols and with a start he realized they could be pressed in.

River started hyperventilating again and screamed, "NO DON'T!" But it was too late, Wash had applied some pressure on the symbol and one of them sank in.

Everybody backed away as the innocent looking slab began to glow a pale shade of white.

"_Shun-sheng duh gao-wahn_!" muttered Jayne.

The light grew blindly bright for a moment and when it died down everyone was shocked to see a body of a teenage boy dressed in rags instead of an inanimate object.

"What in the hell?" breathed Mal in wonder.

Simon was the first to spring into action and took hold of the boy's wrist. "His pulse is very weak," he said urgently. "We have to take him to the infirmary."

River on the other hand had suddenly gone very calm and was simply watching everybody else for now. She didn't even glance at the boy on the floor.

"Captain?" called out Simon again.

"Huh, oh yea, do your thing doc," said Mal.

"Help me carry him Jayne."

"I ain't touching a person that comes out of nowhere doc," said Jayne raising his hands in surrender and backed away.

"I'll help," said Book and together they carried the boy to the infirmary.

Wash, Zoe, Jayne and Mal just stared at each other helplessly. "Have you ever seen such technology?" asked Zoe in amazement.

"I haven't," said a bewildered Wash. "I pressed a button and a boy came out... Am I a magician?" he asked sounding hopeful.

"You're a pilot Wash, definitely not a freaky magician," said Mal rolling his eyes.

"It's probably Alliance tech," said Jayne fearfully. "Maybe it's a new type of prison." Jayne didn't know how close to the truth he was.

"Well lets wake him up and find out," said Mal resolutely and the four headed to the doctors work place where everyone else was at.

No one noticed River just standing there with death in her eyes.

"Is he going to be okay Simon?" asked Kaylee.

"Well his vitals are fine now. His heart rate is back to normal and right now he just seems to be asleep," said Simon.

"Wake him."

"I don't think that's a good idea captain," began Simon.

"Wake him now."

Simon sighed but complied with the order anyway and gave the boy a shot of epinephrine.

The boy woke up with a jerk and his eyes darted around the room in panic as he tried to clear his heavily confused mind. He tried to move but found that he didn't the strength to do so.

"Who are you kid?"

He blinked at the voice and forced himself to calm down and focus. Why was it so hard to remember?

"I-," he rasped.

"Give him some water doc," said Mal.

The boy accepted it gratefully and felt rejuvenated as the liquid gold slid down his throat. Everybody waited for him to settle when finally with the doctor's help he pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Where am I?" he asked hoarsely. His voice sounded like he hadn't spoken in a long time. The crew immediately noticed how his accent was similar to Badger's.

"You're aboard my ship, Serenity and I'm Captain Reynolds. Who are you?"

The boy frowned. "I'm on a ship?"

"Answer the gorram question boy," growled Jayne. "Who are you?"

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter and I honestly don't seem to remember much," he said giving Jayne a wary look.

"How can you not remember anything?" asked Inara. Harry spotted the source of the husky voice and his eyes widened at the beauty of the woman.

"Yea," smirked Mal. "She's hot I'll give her that."

Jayne gave her lecherous look, "Yea she is," But he shut up after a look from Kaylee and Inara.

"Erm... everything seems to be a bit hazy in my mind," said Harry with an apologetic smile.

"Well could you at least tell us how you turned into a person from what seemed to be a simple slab made of stone!" asked Wash.

"I'm sorry what?" asked a confused Harry.

"You came out of nowhere. I pressed some weird button on... well you! And the stone turned into you! It was like magic!"

Harry's eyes went blank at the mentioning of the word _magic_.

"It wasn't magic Wash," said Zoe, hitting her husband over his head. "It was just some Alliance technology that's all."

"Zoe," whispered Mal pointing towards Harry. The boy had gone rigid all of a sudden and according to the life support machine, his heart rate was steadily increasing.

"What's going on doctor?"

"I have no idea," said Simon. He pressed his stethoscope to Harry's chest and listened for abnormalities.

Everything was coming back to Harry; the capture, the fighting, the torture and the ritual. That god awful ritual which made him want to claw his eyes out.

"I need to get back!" he said in panic and jumped off the bed. Being immobile for so long made it difficult for him to stand on his feet and fell to the floor in a heap. He pulled out all the wires and needles attached to him and tried to move towards the door. Magic that had been kept dormant for centuries was coursing through his body once more and helping him regain control over his limbs.

"Hey, hey, calm down kid," said Simon holding on to Harry and beckoning Wash to come and help him.

"No, you don't understand! He's going to kill them all! I have to go back and stop him!"

"Wha-" began Kaylee but Mal cut her off.

"Where do you need to go kid?" he asked hoping to get some answers.

"London," replied Harry. "I need to get to London. Where are we heading right now?"

There was stunned silence.

"Are we still in the north sea?" he asked not recognizing the shift in the atmosphere until Mal burst out laughing.

"London!" he said between gasps. "Kid, are you talking about the Earth that was?"

"Earth that was?" said Harry perplexed. What did the man mean by Earth that was?

"And we're not in a sea kid," added Zoe, "We're in space."

"I think he's another nut job the Alliance has been playing around with Mal," growled Jayne. "We cannot afford to have anymore gorram fugitives on board the ship!"

"Space?" breathed Harry. "What do you mean?"

Zoe and Simon hauled him to the feet and took him to the bridge. "You're floating in the black Harry," said Kaylee sympathetically.

"No, that's not possible," whispered Harry stumbling back. He saw nothing much darkness outside.

"It is what it is kid," said Mal.

"Stay back," mumbled Harry and quick as a light he grabbed Mal's gun, "STAY BACK," he yelled. He trained the gun on Mal and kept moving it side to side trying to keep it on all the crew members at the same time.

"Whoa, whoa, you do not want to be playing with that kid," said Mal trying to placate Harry and signaled Zoe and Jayne to keep their weapons away.

"Who are you really?" spat Harry venomously. "You all are working for Voldemort aren't you?"

"Who the hell is Voldemort?"

"Don't lie! This is one of his mind games isn't it? Don't think you can fool me!" he yelled.

"Kid, Harry, look outside and tell me what you see?"

Harry was panting and was very close to a nervous breakdown. "I- there's nothing," he stammered.

"That's right and do you really think we're working for this Voldemort guy?" he asked solemnly.

"N-no, you all look like muggles to me," he said. He was losing it. His eyes and mind were telling him two very different stories.

"Whatever that word means, I won't take it as an insult," said Mal and edged closer to the boy. "Now just put the gun down and we'll talk without the need for violence understand?"

Harry hesitated.

"No! Stay back!"

"Harry," Mal said calmly, "Take a deep breath and think. Are you really going to use that weapon? Do you even know how to use it?"

Harry's hands began to shake badly and he lowered the gun a little.

"Good," said the captain and punched Harry in the jaw knocking him out cold.

"Was that necessary cap'n?" Kaylee said dolefully. The poor kid had looked so lost and confused!

"A gun in the hand of an unstable person is much more dangerous than in the hands of one with the intent to use it Kaylee," Mal said wisely. "Secure him Jayne. We'll question him once he wakes up."

"With pleasure," said Jayne smiling in anticipation and he slung Harry over his shoulder.

"But no torturing him!" Mal yelled at his retreating back.

"Awww."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**A/N**: I've got a sudden obsession with Firefly, so just trying my hand at a Harry Potter/Firefly crossover. Hope you enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Lost**

Harry's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he felt was a terrible ache around his jaw. "Wha happen'd," he mumbled and tried to touch his face but to his surprise his hands didn't move. It was then when he realized his hands and legs were bound.

"So you're awake, again," Mal said.

He tried to break free but the ropes were tightly secured. "Why am I here?"

"You were freaking out," Mal replied simply.

"Wait a minute," Harry said frowning. "You punched me!"

"Hey you were the one waving my gun around. Don't blame me for knocking you out which by the way was very, very easy," he said snorting.

Harry narrowed his eyes in anger and struggled to free himself of his bonds. "Let me go," he said when he couldn't even loosen them.

Mal smirked, "and let you steal another gun to wave around like a lunatic? No thanks."

"What do you want from me?" Harry hissed. This was definitely one of Voldemort's mind games and he was not going to fall for it.

"I want answers," Mal said calmly.

"Well don't waste your breath, I won't tell you anything."

"Then I'm going to have my man Jayne have a little one on one with you until you loosen your tongue."

"You're going to have me tortured?" Harry said looking unimpressed. "How original," he sneered. "Try something new for once in your life scum!"

Mal frowned. "Like what?"

But Harry wasn't listening. "Although you don't look like my regulars," he said darkly. "Who are you really?"

"Who the hell do you think I am kid?" Mal asked, puzzled.

Harry scoffed. "No need to play games now, let's just begin already. I haven't got all day."

"Look Harry," he said trying his best to stay calm. "I don't know what gorram nonsense you're spewing but I am Captain Malcolm Reynolds and this is my boat, Serenity."

"Do. You. Understand?"

Harry suddenly looked a tad unsure of himself. This didn't seem like one of Voldemort's mind games anymore and added to that he wasn't feeling any pain too. Could this be a spectacular deception and was Voldemort laughing his nose less face off at the confusion Harry was going through? He took another look at Mal and he couldn't detect anything malicious about him.

Harry decided to play this out and see what happens.

"Now do I need to punch some sense into you or are you going to start thinking and talking rationally?"

Harry stilled and then shrugged, "Do you worst."

Mal sighed. "How old are you kid?" he asked. He had hoped the threat of Jayne would loosen his tongue but it turns out the kid knew a little something about pain if his rants about torture were anything to go by.

"Seventeen," Harry muttered.

He was the same age as River and maybe just as mad as she was, thought Mal.

"I already have one psychotic girl on my vessel and I just have to know, are you right in the head?"

Harry looked very insulted. "Of course I am," he said.

"Then why the rutting hell do you want to go the Earth that was! What, do you think you live there? Were you in a nut house before you came to be stuck inside a slab?"

Harry was quiet. He thought about Voldemort's last words to him but he couldn't recall the exact words. The nerve-racking pain he had to bear had clouded most of his memories about that night. What he did remember was something about Voldemort sealing him forever.

"Are we really in space?" Harry asked, holding his breath in anticipation of the answer.

"Yes," replied Mal and Harry felt all the air rush out of his system.

For how long had he been sealed? Harry thought in dismay but he kept his emotions under control thanks to his occlumency. "And this is a space ship?"

"Like I said before, yes and her name is Serenity. Now that I've answered few of your questions I want you to answer a few of mine."

Harry nodded hesitantly.

"Where are you from?"

"I err, I'm from Surrey," Harry said thinking quickly. The man had mentioned the term Earth that was a few times and the only reason for that, Harry deduced, was that Earth was no more and muggles had finally achieved their dream of travelling beyond their own atmosphere.

"Surrey?" Mal said with a frown. "I've never heard of that planet."

Harry's hypothesis turned out to be right and that did nothing to ease his mind.

"The name could have changed," Harry said. "It's been a long time since I've been there."

Mal raised an eyebrow. "And would you care to explain how you turned into a slab of stone and back?"

"I think I might have mentioned that Voldemort guy," said Harry trying his very best to sound convincing. He also found it a little amusing that the man didn't even twitch at the dark lord's name.

"Accused us of being in league with him you did," Mal said giving Harry a hard look.

Harry had the grace to look sheepish.

"He murdered my friends and then somehow used, err, some technology to do that to me. I don't know how long ago that was."

"So this Voldemort guy wasn't Alliance."

The Alliance seemed to sound like some sort of group to Harry so it was easy to answer that one. "No, he wasn't," he said confidently. "Do you mind letting me go now."

"Do you promise not to freak out on me?"

"I won't," Harry promised. His hands and legs had gone numb and he really didn't like that feeling.

"Oh one last question," Mal said before cutting Harry's bonds. "Is there any place you'd want to get off at?"

Harry's brain froze. He hadn't considered that at all. Of course the captain wouldn't want him on the ship. Taking a deep breath he looked into the captain's eye and read his thoughts.

"Beaumonde," he said, plucking the first planet's name that was floating in the Captain's mind. "I'd like to get off at Beaumonde."

Mal looked at Harry calculatingly. He was certain there was no world by the name of Surrey and he knew there was something strange about the boy. He decided to test the boy's knowledge about the verse and was quite surprised to find that he actually knew the name of a planet. Of course it would be easy to catch the kid in the lie but he didn't press the matter. He honestly didn't feel the boy was a threat to them.

"Alright then," said the Captain. "You can get off once we get there but until then I expect you to work on my boat. I don't like slackers so you best find something you're good at to do understand?"

"Yes sir," Harry said quickly and was very relieved when Mal freed him. He gently rubbed his aching wrists and ankle to get the blood to circulate again and then stood up carefully.

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm famished Captain."

Harry and Mal stepped out and came face to face with a smirking Jayne holding a very big and very sharp knife in one hand and a sub machine gun in the other.

"Do I get to torture him yet?" he asked eagerly.

"No," said Mal rolling his eyes, "And put the gun away," he added.

"What about the kid? Isn't he dangerous?"

"For now he's not," he said appraising Harry.

Jayne huffed. "Fine," he grouched, "Let's trust the freaky kid instead," he said and followed Harry and Mal to the kitchen while grumbling about more passengers under his breath.

Kaylee was the first to greet them when they reached. "Oh hey cap'n," she said cheerfully. "And you too Harry. Cap'n decided you weren't a threat huh."

Harry smiled. "I guess so," he said, "But I couldn't exactly say the same about that big guy," he told her softly.

"Oh don't mind Jayne," Kaylee said giggling, "He's just got too much testosterone in him and more of a shriveled up pea instead of a brain between his ears. Now come on and join us," she said grabbing his hand and pulled along an amused Harry.

Walking in this ship was so noisy, thought Harry. The constant clanging of metal against metal, the thrum of the engine, the sound of his new boots against the metal floor and the crew was even noisier. They were laughing and talking loudly but when he stepped into the room all of them went silent.

"This is Harry Potter," Mal said thumping Harry on the back, hard. "He'll be joining our crew for a little while. Why don't ya'll introduce each other?"

One by one they said their names and Harry committed them to memory. Ever since he had gained a good grasp on occlumency and legilimency his memory power had gone up too. The small girl sitting next to the doctor didn't say anything when her turn came and everyone looked at her curiously.

"River," Simon said, "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

"To whom?" she asked not bothering to look up.

"Err... the young man standing in front of us?" he said with a confused laugh.

"There's no one there," River said in matter of fact tone. "He doesn't exist so there's no need for introductions." She went back to eating and not once looked at Harry.

"Sure he exists, River," Wash said, beaming with importance. "I created him!"

"You just released him from that techno cage husband," Zoe retorted.

"Anyhow," Mal interrupted, "He's joining us for dinner and we'll figure out what to do with him later. But for now eat," he said and pushed Harry to the table.

Harry took a seat next to Inara and thanked Kaylee who filled his plate for him. The food tasted weird but it was oddly filling. Nobody talked with him much but he particularly kept an eye on Jayne who seemed to be ready to chuck him out into space and that mysterious girl, River, who seemed to think he didn't exist. Her behavior reminded him a bit of Luna and he felt a pang of guilt and sadness thinking about his friends.

Slowly the people in the dining room filtered out and finally it was just Mal, Zoe and Harry.

He squirmed in his seat as the two scrutinized him. "Is there something you wanted?" he asked nervously.

"We know you were not telling the truth about everything," Mal said straightaway.

Harry opened his mouth to protest.

"But!" Mal said loudly before Harry had a chance to speak, "Everybody is entitled to their secrets and I respect that. It's a dangerous world out here and all I'll say is this, you harm my crew and I'll riddle you with holes." Mal said this while casually resting his hand on his gun.

Harry's eyes went cold at the threat. He never responded kindly to threats but he understood what the man was saying, even if he didn't like the way it was said.

"Do we have an understanding?"

Harry nodded stiffly.

"Good, now Zoe will show to your bunk. You can roam around the ship but the cargo bay, the engine room and the bridge are out of bounds get it?"

Harry nodded again.

"Have a good night then," said the captain, his eyes glittering.

"Come on," said Zoe shortly and beckoned him to follow her. She led him past the infirmary to the guest quarters.

"This is your new room," she said. "Simon's room is next to yours and River's is right in front so if you need something you can ask them for help."

"Thanks," Harry muttered.

"Do you need anything else for now?"

Harry looked around the small room. One bed, a tiny bathroom, a cupboard and a mirror was all the room had, but it was enough. "I don't have any clothes."

"Well too bad," Zoe said unsympathetically, "You're going to have to earn your lodgings else you'll be stranded at the next planet without a hint of remorse."

"Right," Harry said quietly and then said thanks and shut the door in her face. He was tired of all the hostility when he had done nothing to harm them!

He let of a sigh of frustration and collapsed on his bed. The reality of the situation was finally hitting him and it was becoming increasingly overwhelming. His breath was coming in short gasps and tears started to form in his eyes.

"What did I ever do to deserve this?" he cried softly. He had lost his friends, every person he had ever cared about and now he was apparently some 500 odd years in the future and not even on his own planet!

He had failed, he thought miserably. Dumbledore had, had so much faith in him and he let everyone down. It was his entire fault.

"I should have listened to Ron," he said angrily. "But no, I thought to say that..." Harry couldn't bring himself to say the dark lord's name. "To say his name was to be brave," he said in grief. "What a foolish notion!"

He didn't know for how long he let his sobs wrack his body. The guilt in his heart was just too much to bear and he let it all out until there was nothing but emptiness left inside of him. He tried to sleep but sleep wouldn't come so he quietly left his room and headed to the bridge. He knew the captain had said it was out of bounds but at the moment he couldn't care less.

As he passed but the doctor and his sister's room he heard River moaning and saying things in her sleep. Nightmare, he thought dully and wondered what had happened to the girl.

He tiptoed all the way to the bridge and gasped when he saw what was outside. It was nothing. It was black, pitch black and he could make out a few dozen stars glowing ominously in the distance. It was like floating in the night sky but the only difference that it was a vacuum outside, there was no gravity, no air, nothing. The stars weren't twinkling like they did from the ground and Harry suddenly felt insignificant when compared to the universe.

He didn't realize that he had tripped a silent alarm Mal had put in place when he entered the bridge.

"What are you doing here?" asked the soft voice of Inara.

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin. "Err... I was... I was, I just wanted to look outside," he stammered. "The room was making me very claustrophobic."

Inara noticed his disheveled appearance and tear-stained face. She sat on the cold steel floor and beckoned him to join her.

"Are you alright?" she asked gently.

"I, I don't know," he said helplessly. "I just don't know." He felt like it was alright to open up to this woman. Her presence was strangely comforting.

He sat next to her wrapping his arms around his knees.

"It's beautiful isn't it," she said gesturing outside. "Looking into space always has a calming effect on me."

"It's endless," Harry muttered. "Hollow and empty."

Inara laughed. "Yes, well everyone has their own perspective about the black. Some find it terrifying because of the dangers it holds, some find it gives them a sense of peace and tranquility and some feel it's brimming to the top with adventure. Everyone has their own outlook about it."

Harry shrugged and continued to stare outside.

"What happened to you Harry?" she asked him with concern. "You look like you're in so much pain."

"It's nothing," Harry mumbled.

Inara grazed her fingers on his cheek and Harry felt like melting. "Talking helps you know. Don't be afraid, Harry. I'm only here to help you."

She shifted behind him began to massage his shoulders. Harry felt so relaxed under her ministrations.

"Do you know what it feels like to lose everything you ever held dear to you and wake up in completely strange place the next moment?" he said after a while.

"No, I don't," she said quietly.

"It hurts so much," Harry whispered. "It hurts _so _much that I just want it all to end!" Inara felt her heart squeeze at the amount of pain the boy was radiating.

"Don't think like that," she said. "Pain is a part of life and it is always through pain that you grow and learn to appreciate the things in life you would otherwise just ignore. Feel your pain, overcome it and learn how to master it."

Harry closed his eyes feeling miserable and lent into the companions arms enjoying the warmth and her presence. She ran her fingers through his hair whispered words of comfort to him and it wasn't long before he fell asleep in her arms.

She carefully shifted his head and placed it on the floor and quietly got up and went out.

"I take it you heard everything?"

"Of course," Mal said.

"And?" she asked. Mal had come to her when the alarm went off and had asked her to use her skills as a companion to get the boy to talk.

"He's not a danger to us yet," he said. "His past seems to be a violent one and we don't know if it has anything to do with the Alliance. Plus it's really weird that he knows nothing about the verse. I mean, he knew the name Beaumonde but I think he just overheard the name."

"Why didn't you confront him then and there?" she asked.

"He's not going to tell us the truth yet. We'll have to wait and keep observing him."

Mal sighed. "Anyhow, I'll take him to his room. You go and get some sleep," he said.

Inara nodded and glanced back at the boy who was now sleeping peacefully, looking like the picture of innocence.

"Though this is the first time I have a sense of appreciation for your whoring skills," he said smirking. "You'd make such a good interrogator."

"Good night Mal," Inara said icily and turned her back on him. She wasn't in the mood for another fight.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It was disorienting for Harry to wake up and find out that it still was dark outside. Of course then he remembered the circumstances behind the darkness and how he came to be there but it was still odd.

He also felt a little ashamed about his breakdown last night and wanted to apologize to Inara the first chance he got. He got out of bed and was surprised to find a shirt and trousers neatly folded and placed on the floor.

They're not as bad as they'd like to be, he thought smiling.

He stripped out of his old clothes and stepped into the shower and let the warm water hit his body. It felt unbelievable to take a bath after so long, although, in actuality, it just felt like a few days had passed after his capture.

Memories and thoughts kept flowing through his mind like the water flowing on his skin.

He remembered the loss of his wand, how a piece of him had died that day. He wondered if the magical community still existed and what could have happened to them. According to the dark lord he was immortal as long as Harry was alive and added to that he still had his horcurxes. So was _you know who_ still around in this future?

The thought made shivers run down his spine. He needed to find out more about the history of the human race and more particularly about Earth and what had happened after his sealing. Voldemort had planned to destroy the muggles but obviously he wasn't successful seeing as the muggles had occupied pretty much a whole new solar system!

After the shower he changed into his new clothes which were a tad big for him and headed out to the kitchen.

"Morning chum," Wash said cheerfully. Zoe, River, Simon, Book and Jayne were there too.

"Hi," Harry said. "Whose clothes are these?"

"Those would be mine," Wash said giving Harry a mock bow.

"Thank you."

"No problem, it's the least I could do for my creation," He then frowned and looked at the preacher. "Does this make me god Shepherd?"

"No, it does not," Book replied. "But it does make you a delusional god if you want."

Wash nodded thoughtfully, "Hmmm... well as long as there's god in there."

Zoe snorted and shook her head ruefully at her husband's antics. "There's food on the counter if you want some," she said to Harry.

Harry nodded his thanks.

"What is this stuff anyway?" he asked. It tastes very weird.

"Basic necessities," Simon answered. "Protein, vitamins, carbs."

"Huh, you don't have any normal food? Like eggs, bread, bacon?" He stopped talking when he saw everybody staring at him incredulously.

"Fresh food ain't cheap boy and it's a rare commodity too," Jayne said staring down at Harry. The big man was busy cleaning his weapons and he gave Harry a nasty grin and patted his gun.

Harry regretted opening his mouth. He didn't know anything about this new world that he was in and it was better to observe rather than talk.

"Oh, right," he mumbled.

"But we do get some nice fruits once in a while after a successful job," Book said for Harry's benefit.

He spent the rest of the time quietly forcing the food down his throat and every now and then glancing at River who, for a long time now, had been staring intently at the roof. Her mouth was half-open and her eyes wide.

"What's up with your sister?" Harry asked Simon quietly.

"Nothing," said the doctor uncomfortably. "She tends to get a little spaced out now and then."

River slowly shifted her attention to Simon and Harry. "Are you alright, River?" Simon asked, concerned.

She then locked eyes with Harry and for a moment Harry wondered what was going through the girl's mind when he felt it, the pressure of someone trying to pierce his occlumency shields.

It was unlike anything he had ever felt. Usually a legilimens would focus his attack on a part of the victim's shields but what Harry was feeling was completely different. It was like there were needles trying to sink into every inch of his shield and the force behind it kept increasing at a steady pace.

"Stop," Harry commanded mentally, gathering his magic to strengthen his shields.

But River just continued staring into Harry's eyes, her expression changing from blank to confusion and then to anger.

"How?" she whispered. "How are you doing this?"

And then with a mighty heave, Harry managed to eject her out of his mind and her head snapped back in pain.

Fury was etched all over his face which was reciprocated on River's face too.

"River, Harry?" Simon called out warily, wondering what was going on between the two. The rest of the room had gotten to their feet too sensing trouble brewing.

"_Gun jun duh hwoon dahn,"_ River screamed and then her foot lashed out towards Harry's chest.

Two years of fighting and training with Kingsley in the art of hand to hand combat had honed Harry's instincts and he instantly crossed his arms in front of him and blocked the kick.

It was shockingly strong.

"River!" Simon shouted in shock.

But she didn't listen. She retracted her leg and pivoted on her left foot and aimed for his head this time and Harry caught her ankle just in time and shoved her away.

River stumbled back and she stared at him murderously.

"Settle down gorramit!" Jayne yelled and grabbed River while Simon and Book took a hold of Harry's arms and dragged him back. Zoe took position between the two kids just in case.

"Let me go!" River screamed squirming and struggling to get free from Jayne.

"Doc, get your sister under control!"

Simon hurried over to River and whispered calming words into her ear and gently took her out of Jayne's grip. Jayne was ready to catch hold of her again if she went all crazy once more.

"Leave me alone!" River yelled at Simon suddenly looking very upset and ran out of the room at ran into Mal who was just coming in.

"Wha-?"

"_Bun tyen-shung duh ee-dway-Ro,"_ she spat at the captain and sped away.

Mal blinked twice.

"I thought you said she was a prodigy doc," Mal said.

Simon just sighed exasperatedly and hurried after his sister.

"Do I want to know what happened here?"

"The gorram girl went psycho is what happened Mal," Jayne said. "She attacked the kid without provocation!"

"I'm not a kid!"

Everyone ignored Harry.

"Wait, River attacked Harry?" Mal asked frowning.

"That's right captain," Zoe said. "One minute she's all River like and the next she's out for the kid's blood."

Mal laughed. "River like, that's funny."

Half the room glared at the captain while Wash snorted.

"Anyway," he said hastily, "Are you hurt?" he asked Harry.

"No, not really," Harry replied. His eyes were far away as his mind furiously contemplated the possibilities of River being a witch. Her mental intrusion was nothing like legilimency so what was it? Why was she so distressed when she couldn't read his mind? The questions raged but there were no satisfactory answers.

"Good. We'll let the doctor take care of River and you best stay out of River's way. For some reason she doesn't seem to like you and it's not a good idea to upset her. I don't think my ears can take any more of her screaming."

Harry nodded absently.

"Are you alright son?" Shepherd asked. "You look a little out of it."

Harry smiled. Around him Mal was still talking to Jayne. Kaylee and Inara had just come up and Wash was telling them about the altercation between Harry and River.

"What's the deal with River?" he asked the Preacher.

Book sighed. "That girl has suffered a lot at the hands of the Alliance," he said grimly.

Harry leaned forward in interest.

"She is very gifted child according to her brother, a prodigy you could say," he began. "Anything she does, mathematics, physics, dancing, anything at all and she can master it in no time. When she was fourteen she was invited to a government run school which promised to be challenging for her and she went. Only it turned out to be a research facility and River was their toy."

Harry grimaced.

"For three years they treated her brain like their playground until her brother managed to infiltrate the place and rescue her from that hell."

"So that's why she's the way she is?" he asked quietly.

Book nodded. "She's very intuitive," he said. "And quite morbid sometimes," he added chuckling. "But otherwise she's quite harmless. I honestly don't know what could have provoked her to lash out at you."

"Yeah," Harry muttered. "I wonder what it was."

"What about you son?" asked the Shepherd.

"What do you mean?"

"Where are you from actually?"

Harry had a faraway look in his eyes and he didn't reply.

"I am a Shepherd Harry. If you ever want to talk about it you should know that I am here and whatever we talk about will always be in confidence," he said seriously.

Harry felt touched by the gesture and for a moment he wanted to tell the man everything. About what he was, about _who_ he was and about the hell he was in for the past week, well technically it was more than 500 years but for him it had just been a week.

"No thanks Shepherd," he said. "But if I ever feel the need I shall take you up on that offer."

Book smiled and patted him on the back. "War is terrible, son," he whispered knowingly and Harry jerked in shock.

How could the man have known!

"It's the way you hold yourself," he explained. "The captain recognized that stance and the haunted look in your eyes was probably the clincher. That's why he has been so lenient on you."

Harry snorted. "So this is what life is like out here? Living on the edge and being suspicious about everything and everyone?"

"Living on the outer rim is dangerous," Book replied seriously. "One wrong move could cost you your life. It's only the central planets where life seems a bit easy but those are the Alliance controlled planets and if you don't want to be under their control you live out here."

"And what's wrong with the Alliance?" But then he remembered River and took back his words.

Book realized what Harry was thinking and spoke up. "What they did to River is terrible but the Alliance is more than that. You should learn more about them before you pass judgment," said Book.

Harry hummed. He needed to know more about this new world. "Do you have a history book or something?" he asked. "I'd like to brush my knowledge about the past."

Book raised his eyebrows. Everything about the boy was an oddity, he thought. The way he spoke, the way he acted, the lack of knowledge about the verse, it was just too peculiar but Book held his tongue and kept his thoughts to himself. "The doctor has an encyclopedia, you could ask him."

Harry thanked him and headed to the infirmary. Maybe he could get some answers now.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Greenhorn**

Harry gave the Shepherd his thanks and walked to the infirmary hoping that River wasn't around. He didn't want another confrontation with her and to his luck the doctor was alone.

"Hi, doctor?"

"You can call me Simon," he replied smiling kindly. "What can I do for you?"

"Err... I was wondering if I could borrow your encyclopedia."

Simon frowned. "My encyclopedia? Why?"

"No reason," Harry replied quickly. "Just wanted to read a bit."

Simon looked at Harry shrewdly before coming to a decision. He rummaged through his drawers and handed a metal pad to the wizard.

"What happened here anyway?" Harry asked Simon. The room was a complete mess.

"Jayne was looking for tape. Unfortunately he hasn't been blessed with an abundance of intelligence and this was the result."

"Oh," Harry said smiling but not really paying attention. "Well thanks, I'll get this back to you once I'm done." After I figure out how to use it anyway, he added mentally.

"Harry!" Simon called out suddenly.

"Yes?" he replied poking his head back through the door.

"Do you know why River acted out against you?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm sorry Simon, I have no idea. It's a mystery to me as well." That was a lie but Harry didn't care. He couldn't tell them that he had fended off a mental attack by that girl which made her angry.

Simon looked disappointed. He felt that if he had an idea then it could help him in his diagnosis of her condition, whatever it was.

"Thanks again Simon," Harry repeated and quickly left.

It took him a while but after about an hour he figured out how to use the machine. He was simply amazed at the way the device worked. There was no real button anywhere but it seemed that there were buttons under the screen and they kept shifting depending on what he touched. Plus it didn't help that the keys were in Chinese or Japanese, he wasn't sure, but after randomly touching the virtual buttons he was able to figure out what did what and what to press to an extent.

It took him another half an hour to realize that the device could be used using his voice alone. All he had to do was say the words and the screen would change to show him what he wanted. He couldn't wrap his head around the way it worked but he was glad the data was in English and not in a language that made no sense to him.

"Earth that was," he said clearly; that was how the others referred to Earth now. The screen changed in front of his eyes and a very long article appeared with the title 'A history of planet Earth'. As his eyes began to drink in the words he realized that there was nothing pleasant about the past or rather his future. There was nothing in there about the magical world but it seemed that the Muggle world had begun to fall headfirst into a downward spiral after what seemed to be a few decades after his sealing.

Wars, terrorism, exhaustion of resources, increasing population, technological progress, medical advancements, global warming, deadly viruses both biological and virtual in nature the list seemed to go on and on but then he came to the part where finally there were two firmly established superpowers left in the world; the Chinese and the Americans. It seemed like peace had finally been rediscovered but the toll of the massive wars and destruction had taken a terrible toll on the planet. The Earth was rapidly becoming uninhabitable.

He read about how they had to find a new solar system and how long it had taken them to get there. He read about how the planets were made to be inhabitable for humans. He read about the formation of the Alliance and then he read came to the war.

He sighed wearily and rubbed his eyes. Was there ever going to be an end to conflict, he wondered miserably.

The war between the Independents and the Alliance was the longest and bloodiest in the history of mankind. There had been so much death but the Alliance had emerged triumphant. He learned that the Independents were also called the Browncoats and then with a start he realized that the captain and Zoe wore brown color coats. Did that mean they had fought in the war? Is that why they hated the Alliance with a passion that matched his hatred of Voldemort?

The answers brought about more questions but things were slowly making sense to Harry. But his main reason for looking through the encyclopedia was to find some clue to the fate of the magical world but he could find nothing.

The only explanation he could come up with was that Voldemort was defeated and the magical world was annihilated. But wasn't Voldemort immortal? How could he be killed? And how could the magical world just cease to exist? Could it be that in the dark lord's drive to get rid of impure blood, Voldemort led the magical world to its doom?

Harry sighed and turned the encyclopedia off. His timing was perfect because just at that moment the ship shuddered and the bolts holding it together groaned in stress. A moment later the captain's voice suddenly boomed through the ship.

"This is the captain speaking, there seems to be a slight problem with our entry sequence so we might experience some turbulence so just hang on and if we're lucky we just might land in one piece."

Harry mouth dropped open. "Land in one piece," he mouthed in horror and then hurried to the bridge. He didn't want parts of him on a new planet that he hadn't even stepped on!

"Captain," he yelled and then had to hold on to something as the ship shook violently again.

"Potter," Mal said cheerfully. "Strap yourself in or you might hurt yourself!"

"I don't want to land in bits and pieces!"

"Relax," Mal said comfortingly. "This happens all the time and if we're unlucky you don't have to worry about bits and pieces. You'll be vaporized!"

Wash's voice boomed through the com before Harry could have a panic attack. "All's good people, we passed through without a hitch and in just a few moments we'll be on the ground!"

"Without a hitch he says," Harry muttered disgruntled.

Mal laughed. "Cheer up kid, don't be so negative!" he said and hurried to the engine room.

Harry looked up into the bridge and he could see the blue outside. Excitement began to bubble in him and a broad smile was etched on his face. He was going to step foot on a new planet! He had never even dreamed of such a thing happening in his lifetime.

He hurried down to the cargo bay where Zoe and Jayne were loading some cargo in a jeep like vehicle. Only it was bigger and seemed more capable of handling rough terrain.

Suddenly the entire ship jerked and Harry knew they had landed safely. The engine's whining drew to a halt and then there was silence.

"Alright let's go get paid people," Mal said, coming down two steps at a time. "Smells like the start of a good day."

"Can I come too," Harry asked.

"What?" growled Jayne.

"If it's alright with you, captain," Harry said to Mal ignoring the glowering Jayne.

"No," said Mal firmly. "We have business to deal with but if you want you can go out with Kaylee. She needs to be getting us some new parts anyway."

"Damn right," came Kaylee's sweet voice. "Don't want our baby to fall out of the sky now do we."

"Well it's settled then," said Mal and then he opened the doors.

Sunlight streamed in and Harry couldn't keep that broad smile off his face.

"Wonderful feeling ain't it," Kaylee said from behind him. "That warmth."

Harry nodded. "It feels like it's been forever," he whispered.

She took a hold of his arm and smiled. "Well let's go then."

"No one else is coming with us?" Harry asked.

"Simon isn't very keen on letting River into the town and Wash and the Shepherd are playing cards."

Harry sighed when they stepped out of the ship. The feel of the walking under the sun again was exhilarating. The land around them was barren and he could see a speck in the distance that seemed to be a town or city. They had to walk for a while before they entered the town.

Harry was fascinated by the town. It was such an amazing blend of the past and the future. It felt like two extremes had come together to create something unique. The buildings were made out of wood and looked like a strong gust of wind would blow them over. People rode horses like the few American movies he had watched and the roads were hardened dirt rather than concrete or tar. Of course mixed in with this bizarre settlement was the hovering vehicles that passed by and the digital billboards that were floating above the buildings showing several advertisements in Chinese and English.

He had expected everything to be magnificent as he was 500 years in the future and he didn't think he would be so wrong. In fact if it weren't for the weird technology he would have thought he was in the past for sure.

"So where are we going?" he asked Kaylee.

"Well first we're going to roam around the town," she said cheerfully. "The meat on this planet is somethin' special alright!"

Harry's mouth watered at the sound of meat.

"And by the look on your face you can't wait to have a bite either!" she said laughing.

Harry grinned. "Eating food that feels like plastic has that effect on me."

"Do you want me for a night handsome?" breathed a sensual voice in his ear and Harry turned around to see a scantily clothed woman looking at him suggestively. "You look like you could use the pleasure," she purred, running a well manicured finger down his neck.

"Err..." was Harry's eloquent response.

"No he doesn't," Kaylee said rudely and pulled Harry away from her.

When they walked a little ahead Kaylee turned to him. "You see a lot of that here too," she said irritably as she waved off another whore who was coming their way. She pointed to a three-storied building behind them and said, "That's a brothel, one of Jayne's favorite places in the world."

"Wow."

"Wow?" Kaylee said testily.

"Yeah," he said. "I've never had a woman say that to me."

Kaylee's mood shifted to amusement. "You're a virgin aren't ya?!"

"What?" Harry said defensively. "No!" and then he looked to the ground and muttered, "Yes."

Kaylee smirked. "Well I won't embarrass you any further," she said chuckling.

They soon arrived at a place called Cat's Bar and Kaylee excitedly dragged him inside. "They serve the best beer and meat here!"

Harry smiled at the enthusiastic girl and they both took a seat in the corner. Harry stared around spellbound. He had never seen a place like this ever! There seemed to be a perfect blend of the English and Chinese culture and it was surreal. The tables and chairs were made out of oak and there were dimly lit Chinese lanterns hanging from above. Almost all the banners and menus were in Chinese and Harry knew he had to learn the language if he had to survive in this new world he found himself in.

"Harry!" murmured Kaylee breaking his thought process.

"What?"

"You're staring and people don't like it when others stare at them out here," she warned softly.

"Sorry," mumbled Harry. "It's just that I've never been to a place like this and it's all a bit overwhelming."

Kaylee ordered two beers and a platter of meat when the immaculately dressed waitress came over. Harry began to stare at her peculiar hair style when he remembered Kaylee's words and quickly looked away.

"So where are you from anyway?" asked Kaylee once the woman had gone. "We still haven't figured that out yet."

"It's a long story and I don't want to talk about it," Harry said. "It's not a very nice story."

"Oh, I see," said Kaylee pursing her lips. "Well do you want to talk about River then?"

"What about her?" he replied neutrally.

"Why'd she go all feral on you?" she asked curiously.

Harry sighed. "I have no idea Kaylee."

Kaylee soon realized that Harry was not much of a talker but he was rather cute and he was a virgin too, she thought, laughing in her head.

When the food and beer came all thoughts went straight out of the window.

"This is delicious!" gasped Harry. "What is it?"

"They have a lot of wild animals around here," Kaylee said chugging down a good portion of her beer. Harry followed her lead and took a deep gulp from his tankard.

"Greenhorn is one of the few planets where they have many wild animals. Not all the planets are like this one."

"Awesome," Harry said through a mouthful of food. It didn't take them long to polish their plates. "Can we have more?" he asked eagerly.

"Sadly no," Kaylee said shaking her head. "I don't have much coin on me and we have to get to the scrap yard or the captain will get mad at me."

"Coin, oh, erm, I don't have any money Kaylee," he said feeling embarrassed.

"That's alright. I'm sure you'll pay me back soon enough."

Harry grimaced. That reminded him that he needed to find a job he could do on the ship so that he could get paid.

Kaylee paid the waitress and they left the bar.

"That was wonderful. Thanks Kaylee," he said warmly and gratefully to the mechanic.

Initially he had felt wonderful in the presence of the sun but now the dust and heat were biting into his skin.

"Are all the planets on the outer rim like this?" he asked rolling down his sleeves.

"The terrain is similar but there are differences," replied Kaylee. "It depends on a lot of factors like size, distance from the star but mostly the bigger it is the better."

"Huh, how does size matter?"

"Well you won't find any oceans on a moon but on a big planet you will. You'll find mountains, oceans, more variations in weather patterns and so on," she explained.

"Oh, that's interesting."

"It's curious that you don't know all this, Harry," said Kaylee. "Even little children have a decent abstract knowledge about the verse."

"My memories are still very foggy," Harry said with a laugh. "I remember things but nothing concrete."

Kaylee shrugged. "We're here," she announced and instead of walking through the gate she led him around to the back and they entered through a little hole in the wall.

"Are we breaking in?" hissed Harry.

"No," Kaylee whispered. "We're just entering a dump yard unannounced and leaving the same way without empty sacks."

"That's called breaking in and stealing Kaylee!"

"Well if you've got the credits to buy junk then go ahead, walk in through the front!"

Harry shut up after that and quietly followed the young woman as she inspected several odd-looking parts. Silently she handed stuff that she thought was useful to Harry and gestured at him to put them in the sack they had brought along.

Sighing Harry complied. He couldn't believe he was stealing, even if it was just junk.

As it turns out there wasn't much to take and a very disgruntled Kaylee walked beside Harry on their way back to the ship.

"Didn't find what you were looking for?" said Harry trying not to laugh at her expression.

She glared at Harry. "Get that look off your face! If stupid cap'n gave some more money I could buy parts which would actually work for a longer time instead of having to sneak in and salvage used parts!"

Harry patted her head sympathetically. "There, there," he said. "I'm sure the parts we got will be useful."

"Probably as useful as plastic in my nether regions rather than the real thing," she complained.

Harry choked. He really hoped that he had misunderstood that statement. "Ha, ha," he laughed uncertainly.

Both were brought out of their musings when a group of men suddenly walked out of a narrow alley and blocked their path.

"Well, well, well, what have we here," said the middle man in a deep rough voice. He was big, fat and there was nothing but cruelty radiating from his eyes. He seemed to be the leader of the group.

"Looks like a fine piece of flesh boss," said the one on the right. He was tall, thin, unshaved and had a few teeth missing.

Harry took one look at them and knew they had no good intentions about them. He shifted closer to Kaylee and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"Is there something you wanted gentlemen?" he asked politely. There were three of them in front of them and from the corner of his eye he spotted two more hidden in the alley beside them.

"We want the lass boy and if you want to get out of here unharmed then you best do as we say."

Harry tightened his grip around Kaylee who was now shivering in fear.

"And why do you want her?"

The men laughed. "You haven't been here in the past few months have you boy," said the one who hadn't spoken yet.

"No, I have not," said Harry. Inside he was praying that the captain got suspicious of their delay and came to find them. "Care to enlighten me?"

"There's a new boss in town and he has a thing for pretty little things. If you'd known that you'd make sure a woman travels in these parts with strong and armed men around her!"

The leader smirked, revealing a row of dirty brown teeth. "And not some wimpy looking kid instead."

"Kaylee, when I say so I want you to run as fast as you can towards the ship do you understand me?" he whispered quickly. At the same time he began to gather his magic and focus on his legilimency. That was the only piece of magic he knew that didn't need a wand.

Kaylee just stood there stock still, her eyes darting from man to man wildly.

"Kaylee do you understand?" he whispered harshly and squeezed her arm.

She jumped at the pain and then processed what Harry had just said and nodded.

"You really think you can take us all boy?" asked the leader amused and one by one they drew their guns.

"Oh definitely not," replied Harry airily. "But they sure can," he said pointed behind them.

"Who?" they said and turned around and then Harry yelled "NOW" and shoved Kaylee away.

The men were too slow to react and Kaylee began to run like the devil was on her tail. Before they could form the first letters of protest Harry sprinted towards them with his fists raised.

His fist slammed into the leader's jaw and they fell to the ground. He remembered his training with Kingsley and focused on reading the men's movement with his legilimency. Snape had called this wide focus legilimency when you reached out with your mind and predicted the movements of those around you without having to make eye contact. Its range was short but it was effective in this situation.

He sensed a kick coming from one of the men and quickly rolled away from the leader and swiped with his feet at the third man dropping down hard. The other two men began to run after Kaylee but Harry quickly got up and rammed into them sideways sending them careening into the wall.

By now the other men had recovered from their shock of Harry's sudden attack and had moved to surround him.

The leader drew his gun and aimed at Harry.

Harry felt it coming and just as the man pulled the trigger Harry pulled the man he had pushed into the wall into the bullet's path.

The man screamed as the bullet pierced his shoulder.

Adrenaline was pumping through Harry's blood as he grabbed the pistol on the man who had gotten shot and aimed it at the men in front of him but then he sensed the other man swing his fist at his head and he ducked letting his friend get hit.

Harry shot him in the leg too but he wasn't fast enough to dodge the man's reflexive punch to his face. Dazed, Harry stumbled back straight into the arms of the leader of the group.

"Let him have it boys," he growled and then the next few minutes Harry felt fist after fist being buried in his gut, slamming into his face and he got a couple in the groin too before they let him go and watch him crumble to the ground moaning.

It was a mistake on their part. They might have hurt him a lot but it didn't mean he was down and out for the count. He had endured far worse and for much longer too. He pulled his leg back and let in slam into the leaders groin showing him what it felt like.

"Shoot him in the head gorramit!" he screamed in pain.

The man with the broken teeth took a few steps away from Harry and took aim and shot but Harry dodged again. He knew where the man was going to shoot.

"How is he doing this," yelled the toothless man and then Harry rammed his head into the man's stomach, grabbed his gun and dug it into his head and hid behind him.

The other four had regrouped by now and were pointing their respective weapons at him.

"Drop them," Harry commanded hoarsely. "Unless you want your friends' brains splattered all over the place." His vision was getting blinded with pain but he held on.

"You think we care?" growled one of the men.

"You should!" shouted a man from behind them and Harry couldn't have been happier to see who it was.

Mal, Jayne and Zoe had their weapons trained on the men. They looked so cool, all three of them with their weapons and the promise of pain lurking in their eyes, Harry thought.

"Now ya'll want to drop your weapons and quietly walk away or things are going to get very ugly," Mal said coolly.

The men gave the three a very dirty look before dropping their weapons. They knew this was a fight they could not win and they were injured enough already, thanks to one wimpy looking kid.

"You can let him go Harry," Zoe said.

Harry nodded hesitantly and shoved the man away from him while keeping the gun trained on him.

Silently the men disappeared through an alley and Harry immediately collapsed. His face was all bloody and his body hurt like hell.

"Are you alright boy?" asked Jayne hauling the wizard to his feet.

Harry winced. "I'm alright," he muttered. "Let's just get back," he said and hobbled alongside the three towards their vehicle.

Just when they almost reached their ride Harry stopped suddenly and turned back. "Harry!" called out Zoe but Harry just gestured at them to hold on for a minute and hobbled back to the place where he had fought and picked up Kaylee's bag.

"The parts Kaylee picked out for the ship," he explained when he reached back.

Mal just shook his head in amusement and a smiling Jayne lifted Harry and the bag like he were lifted a feather and dumped him into the front seat.

"Any man who can take on five armed dogs bigger than he, is alright in my book," Jayne said, responding to Zoe's questioning look.

Zoe rolled her eyes and started the machine and together they went back to the ship.

"Is Kaylee alright?" he asked Mal.

"She's fine," said the captain. "She's a little shook up but fine otherwise. Bernoulli told us about this new crew who had landed here a few months back and he didn't have anything nice to say about them. In fact they're so bad that the people here are considering trying their luck at getting the Alliance to help them get rid of these guys!"

"They're despicable," Harry said quietly. But his voice was drowned under the din of the machine. Soon the ship came into sight and Harry felt a strange emotion bubble inside of him. Was that happiness he was feeling? Was he moving on from what had happened with Voldemort so easily? It was like time was rapidly catching up with him and he was putting his past behind him and readying himself for a new life. His brain was telling him that he needed to feel guilt, sadness and depression but it just wasn't coming! Happiness was pouring out of him now and he started laughing.

"Happy that you kicked some ass, Harry? Zoe asked good naturedly.

"I would have finished them if you guys hadn't shown up," he said trying to look all arrogant and confident but his face told a different story. It was swelling up now and his eye was now sporting a lovely shade of purple.

Their vehicle climbed up the ramp of the ship and Harry was instantly engulfed by a tearful Kaylee.

"Uff, I'm alright," he said when a sobbing Kaylee crashed into him and held him like her life depended on it.

"You look like hell Harry!" Kaylee cried.

Inara and Book were watching the scene play out and were desperately trying to hold in their laughter.

"Come on," Mal said prying Harry out of Kaylee's grip. "Let's get you to the infirmary and have the good doctor patch you up."

Zoe ordered Wash to take to the sky from the com. Their job was done, they had got paid and now it was time to look for a new job.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry grimaced as the doctor cleaned his bruises. "What possessed you to take on 5 guys at the same time?" asked Simon. "You could have run with Kaylee!"

"They could have caught up and I needed to let Kaylee get away first," Harry muttered.

"Well if you would have taken off with Kaylee you might have run into the captain and then you wouldn't be in such shape."

"Didn't think of that," said the wizard.

Simon shook his head wearily. "You should place a little more value on your life," he admonished. "Your ribs are bruised quite badly and you're lucky you didn't get shot."

"I'm a good fighter," Harry said. "I knew I wouldn't have gotten shot."

Simon finished bandaging him up and stepped aside to let him get up.

"Take it easy and don't do anything strenuous," Simon warned.

"Got it and do you know where we're heading by any chance?"

"Don't know," replied Simon. "Once the captain makes contact with our next contractor, our destination will be set."

Harry nodded and then limped back to his room. It had been a long day and he his mind and body ached to get some rest. But outside his room he found Kaylee sitting against the door. She was in her overalls and her face was smeared with grease.

"You look dirty," commented Harry jokingly.

Kaylee smiled and stood up. "I wanted to thank you for saving me Harry," she said emotionally.

"It's ..." began Harry but Kaylee just shushed him.

"You don't know us and we don't know you but you stood up for me and protected me."

Harry started sweating when Kaylee closed the gap between them.

"Thank you," she said and tenderly kissed him on the lips. A few seconds later, seconds which felt like an eternity to Harry, she pulled back smiling and walked away.

Harry just stood there, facing his door, stunned. Blood was rushing to his head and he felt light on his feet.

"Wow," he finally breathed out coming down from his pleasurable high and entered his room in a daze. "What a day it's been."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Beaumonde**

Harry Potter sat still on his bed as he felt the ship make its final descent through the atmosphere. In a few seconds Serenity was going to land on Beaumonde and Harry had a decision to make. He could choose to ask the captain to let him join the crew or he could leave the ship and start a new life on a new planet.

But the problem was that he didn't have any money to start even a semblance of a life in a new world nor did he have any money to pay the captain like the Shepherd and the Tams. He was essentially a free loader and that certainly was not the kind of person he was. He would have liked to offer his services to the captain but then he would have to risk letting them know about his past and his abilities, which were severely limited without a wand.

He felt the ship touchdown and he knew it he probably had just a few hours to make his choice.

"Potter," Mal beckoned entering his room.

"Captain."

"We're going to deliver the goods and in the mean time I want you to make your decision. If you chose to stay then you're either going to have to pay me for your lodging or you're going to have to come up with a job for yourself on this boat."

Harry nodded and Mal left Harry to it. During his short time on the ship Harry had also come to realize that the goods that they transported were usually not legal and that in simpler terms meant Mal and his crew were smugglers. He didn't know what to make of that but he did know they were good people.

He sighed and decided to take a look at the city they were in when he ran into River. Both teenagers had a few minutes worth staring match and then River spoke, "A human body decomposes four times faster in water than on land."

Harry opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out. How could a girl who looked so pretty and innocent be so creepy? He thought to himself.

"Err... Cool," replied Harry lamely. He had a suspicion that she was imagining his body decomposing.

River narrowed her eyes which betrayed the annoyance she was feeling and then she just sauntered away. Harry sighed in relief when she disappeared from his sight. At least she hadn't launched that weird mental attack of hers.

The sky was dark when Harry stepped out but the port where the ship was docked and the city just beyond was bustling with life and light. Organized chaos was Harry's first thought when he left the port and entered the city. It was so unlike Greenhorn. The buildings looked solid though not many rose any more than six stories. The road was a not hard packed dirt and there was a definite futuristic feel to the city.

There were so many restaurants and stalls around with colorful signboards beaming above them. Everything looked so inviting that Harry felt like walking into every one of those stores. To call the city overcrowded was an understatement. There were men laughing raucously, some were singing, a few families were buying ice creams and toys with their children and most men and women were stumbling about, drunk.

It was noisy, it was dirty, it was free and Harry loved it. His decision was made.

He eagerly wanted to go and explore the city further and perhaps buy something but he sighed in disappointment when he remembered that he had no money at all. He turned back and headed back to the ship while constantly pushing down that urge to enter every shop in sight.

On his way into the ship he met Shepherd Book outside who was overseeing the refueling of the ship.

"Had a nice walk did you?"

"Oh Yeah," Harry said grinning.

"This planet is great," Book said wistfully. "There's opportunity, crime, money, entertainment, gambling..." he broke off as his mind wandered into the past.

"Sounds like you've been here before," Harry said in amusement.

"A long time ago, perhaps even before I got my first gray hair," he said humorously.

"I'm going to stay," said Harry suddenly.

"Pardon?"

"I've decided to stay here; I'm not coming back on the ship."

Book took a second to process that and then he nodded slowly. "If I remember correctly you had said that you wished to be dropped off at Beaumonde. Do you have family here?"

"No," Harry said truthfully. "I just feel like this is a good place to start a new life."

"It's your decision Harry but just remember; this place holds both prosperity and poverty. If you register yourself with the Alliance then you might find life a bit easier but it will also be restrained. If you choose not to then your fortunes could go either way."

"I'll remember that," Harry said accepting the advice gratefully.

"And one more thing," Book said. He dug his hands into his pockets and removed a sack of coins. "There are about 50 credits in there and they should be enough for you to sustain yourself for a week or two."

"Shepherd," Harry protested but Book just raised his hands stopping Harry.

"You need a place to stay and find yourself a job. You can pay be back some other time."

"I'll be sure to do that," said Harry gratefully.

Just then Simon came down with River dutifully trailing a few paces behind him. The doctor looked around questioningly. "Captain's not back yet?"

"Not yet," Book said. "The ship's been refueled though."

"Oh," Simon said nodding absently, "That's good."

"Is something wrong son?"

"No, nothing." His worried glance towards River spoke otherwise.

Fifteen minutes later Mal and the rest of the crew returned with broad smiles on their faces.

"I take it you got paid?" asked Book.

"You bet your holy book we did," Mal said cheerfully. "Start her up Wash and set course for Persephone. We have to pick up Inara and Badgers got a job waiting for us."

Wash mock saluted Mal and headed up to the bridge with Zoe and Jayne in tow. Kaylee made her way to the engine room to make sure nothing went wrong.

"You decided yet Harry?" Mal asked the wizard.

"I'm leaving," Harry said.

Mal nodded. "Good."

"Thank you for everything captain and if we ever met again I'll be sure to repay you."

"Make sure you do," Mal joked. "Do you want to say goodbye to the others or...?"

"No, it's alright. You can tell them for me," he said and looked on last time at the ship. He looked at River and saw that she had a small smile on her face. It wasn't a malicious one or one indicating that she was glad he was leaving; it was just a friendly smile.

That girl seriously made no sense to him.

"Well goodbye then," said Harry and walked out of the ship and into his new life.

"Look for a motel called 'The Sun'," Mal shouted as the cargo bay was closing. "They won't rip you off!"

Harry gestured his thanks and then the doors closed. He waited for a moment and watched the ship take off and hurtle back into space.

He had nothing on him except for the coin Shepherd had given him. In the past he had fantasized so many times about just giving everything up and starting over and now he had gotten his chance.

It took him a while but after asking for directions from a dozen people and getting lost a few times, he finally found the motel. It didn't look too shabby, Harry thought.

He entered the building and made his way to the reception. "Excuse me, I'd like to rent a room please," he said politely.

A Chinese woman whose face was heavily done up with makeup came up to him. She appraised him before barking out, "How long you wancha stay?"

"A couple of weeks?"

"You be wanting any geisha at night?"

"Geisha?"

"Whore fool!"

Harry gasped and immediately said, "No!"

"Hmm... too bad," said the woman with a smirk. "I give good rates."

Suddenly Harry wondered what kind of an establishment was this and should he have really listened to Mal. He had come to learn that the captain had a sadistic side to him too.

The woman turned around and bent down and began to rummage through a box full of keys and Harry was treated to a very fine piece of ass staring up at him.

Finally she straightened out and threw a key at him.

"5 credits for a day and 10 if you feel like working your cock." Her eyes traveled the length of his body and didn't look impressed. In fact she looked like she pitied him.

Harry blushed and nodded quickly. He didn't want to stay in the presence of this woman any longer and checked the number on his key.

"Room 33," he murmured and walked up the stairs to the third floor. He found that the room faced towards the street and it was quaint. There was a decent sized bed, a bedside table and lamp, a bathroom with a tub and a larger table with drawers for his clothes. There was a large mirror on the bathroom door and a communicator near the entrance.

All in all it seemed like a nice place, but then he heard faint thumping noises coming through the wall. Frowning he went closer and pressed his ear against the wall. At first it sounded like someone jumping on a bed and then he heard the sound of a woman and she was moaning.

Blushing furiously he put as much distance as possible between himself and the wall.

"Oh god," he whispered. How was he supposed to sleep!

Many, many miles away Mal and his crew were laughing themselves silly.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Working**

The past three days had not been easy for Harry. The first day he went looking for a job he was laughed at and thrown out of very establishment. Not giving up Harry continued to look for some form of work but he soon found out that in a city like this he wasn't the only one looking for a job. He found certain alleys where jobless and homeless people had taken shelter and with dread pooling in his gut, he prayed that he wouldn't end up like that.

His second night was a lot better than the first and that was only because he was so exhausted. Cries of passion from man and woman resonated around his room but he didn't hear anything. He was that exhausted.

The second day he also tried looking for a new motel but soon came to the realization that 'The Sun' was definitely the cheapest place to stay in. He continued to look for a job and had to endure immense humiliation in the process but he didn't give up no matter how dirty it made him feel. This was what he had wanted and now he had gotten it.

On his third day he got lucky, well if you could call it that. He had wandered as far as the outskirts and found several factories there. He hit the jackpot after getting booted out of the first two.

"You'll get thirty credits a week and lunch," shouted the foreman over the loud noises. "All you have to do is shove the coal into the furnace as fast as you can and make sure not to slip and fall into it!"

Harry looked at the red hot hole nervously.

"Our last man was unlucky. He wasn't paying attention and one of the pots moving on the conveyor belt above fell and knocked him into the furnace. Poor fellow didn't even have the time to scream."

"When can I start," asked Harry with false bravado. A job was a job and he wasn't stupid enough to say no because it was dangerous or was being paid next to nothing.

The foreman smiled nastily. "Get a helmet from the shed and an overall which fits you. You can start now."

**Two weeks later**

When Harry had decided to live on his own and start over, this was not what he had expected. He hadn't thought earning money and living independently would be this hard. The thirty credits he got at the end of the week barely lasted him the six days. He had no time for enjoyment and all he worried about all day was did he have enough for the next. He would eat the nasty food they served at the factory but it was far from satisfying. When he got back, he would go to a cheap stall which sold chow mein and it was far too greasy to actually enjoy the food. But that was all he could manage with the money he had.

At night he had to dodge Madam Fang's offers of women and then he had to somehow block out the noises coming from the thin walls. Every night it was a different case. Mostly it was sex but sometimes the rooms would be rented out by drug traffickers who needed a place to do their dealings and murder seemed to be quite common in the neighborhood.

Just yesterday a woman with five bullet holes in her back was dragged out and sent to the crematory. When Harry had asked Madam Fang about it, she had just waved him off cheerfully and said it had been the woman's fault anyway. The casual way she spoke about it didn't do anything to put Harry at ease.

But strangely even after all that Harry felt like he was happy. He knew the way he was living right now was quite sad but it didn't matter to him. He knew things could have been much worse. What gave him the most happiness was the fact that he didn't have the boy who lived tag attached to him, he didn't have his parent's inheritance to live off and best of all nobody knew him, nobody cared about him and nobody wanted to kill him.

At least nobody wanted to kill him yet.

Today Harry and the rest of the people who worked at the lowest level of the factory had received a 10 credit bonus and Harry knew exactly what to do with it. He hurried back to his flat, showered, changed into some decent clothes and headed out to the nearest bar.

Most of the people he had become acquainted with at the factory had all made their way to the closest brothels. But what Harry wanted to do was go and drink some alcohol. He was earning his own bread, he had passed himself off as a nineteen year old and now he wanted to buy himself his first drink with his own hard earned money.

He found a decent looking place called the Maidenhead and he made his way straight to the bar.

It was a very interesting place. All around the bar there were gaps in the wall and all that could be seen through them was beautiful legs clad in fishnet stockings dancing sensuously. Harry gulped when he noticed that the place where the women's legs met was not covered at all. Their legs, from the feet to thigh was visible but their provocative moves revealed a lot more from time to time. He felt his neck burning and he quickly took a seat at the semi-circular bar at the center of the establishment.

One corner of the place seemed to be dedicated to gambling and Harry recognized a few who worked at the factory. There was some nice ambient music playing in the background and the big screen above the bar displayed the latest happenings in the verse.

"Can I get you anything?" spoke the girl behind the bar. Harry found it weird that most of the bars were owned and managed by women on this planet.

"Yes, umm I would like some alcohol," Harry said awkwardly. He couldn't suppress the bubble of excitement in him and he grinned at the girl.

"What kind?" she asked.

"The cheapest kind," Harry replied.

She nodded and pressed a button on a machine filling a small glass with a yellow colored liquid Harry noted.

"Here you go," she said and went away to serve another customer. He gulped it down in one shot and produced a very satisfied belch. But a few seconds later a terrible burning sensation began to assault his throat and his eyes began to water profusely.

"First time taking a shot huh," said the girl coming back. She had another shot ready for him.

"No," choked out Harry.

The girl gave him a look.

Harry took a deep breath and pushed the nausea he was feeling.

"Okay it was my first time," he said. He took a closer look at the girl. She was fair and unlike most of the women on this planet, she wasn't Chinese. Harry counted at least eight earrings on her; three on her nose, one iron bar above her eye, another ring on her lip and two on both ears. Her black hair was loosely tied up and he could see the beginning of a tattoo on her nape. He was disappointed that the bar table hid the rest of her.

"What's the occasion?" she asked him.

"Got a raise and decided to spend it the right way," he said chuckling. He took the next glass and downed that one too.

"God," spluttered Harry clenching his eyes and forced the alcohol down.

"You should take it easy you know," said the girl with a laugh. "Cheap whisky hits you faster and harder."

"Sure," said Harry and checked her out once more. "You from around here?" he asked.

"No," she answered truthfully. "I'm from Londinium."

"Londinium! You're from a core planet? What are you doing out here!"

She leaned forward giving Harry a splendid view of her cleavage. "That planet had too many rules," she replied. "_And_ I hated it there."

Harry nodded sagely and then gestured her to bring him another drink. He had learnt quite a bit about the verse since he had arrived and had begun to pick on the Chinese too. The girl looked at him with raised eyebrows but complied anyway. She then left to do her work and Harry watched her every moment with interest. He felt his head buzzing and he knew that the alcohol was doing its thing.

He looked around and his eyes were attracted to the gambling side of the bar. Smirking he expanded his legilimency and took in the scene in front of him. Thought's that weren't his rushed into his mind and through all that jumble greed was the emotion that lingered the most. He tried to understand what the game was about and the only pieces he could get was that it involved cards and if you had better cards you bet big and win, or it was something like that but he wasn't too sure.

He gulped down his drink and called for the bargirl.

"You want another one?"

Harry shook his head. "What are they playing?" he asked her instead.

"You don't know?" she asked him, a little surprised. Harry shook his head. "Well there's no name for it particularly. You get handed two cards from a deck. Five cards are kept open and if the total amount in your hand plus the ones open is the biggest, you win."

"That's it?"

"The remaining cards are kept closed and you can pick a card from that deck if you're not happy with your own, but to do so you'll have to give a penalty."

"Huh," muttered Harry interestedly.

"You're not thinking of playing are you? It's a high risk game," she said.

"I think I am," said Harry grinning broadly. He knew with his skill he could empty every wallet on that table. "How much for my drinks?" he asked her. His voice was beginning to slur.

"Six credits," she said. "And I'll give you one on the house if you come back without your pockets being empty."

Harry gave her a bow and paid her.

"Excuse me," he said going over to the table. "May I join you?"

"Buy in's 10 credits. You got it?" growled one of the men.

Harry emptied his pockets. It was going to be an interesting night.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Three hours later Harry stumbled out of the bar feeling extremely satisfied with himself. He had just made a whooping 157 credits in one night. He had bamboozled all his opponents with his supposed luck when actually it was his mind reading skill which earned him the luck. Technically it was cheating but he didn't care one bit. He had understood that if you don't cheat you get nowhere in this world.

Taking a deep breath he mentally repeated over and over, "Walk in a straight circle, walk in a straight circle, walk in a straight circle," but then he realized what he was saying and smacked himself in an effort to get some clarity.

"Hey you," said a familiar voice and Harry turned and found himself face to face with the girl from the bar.

"Hey," he replied grinning. Before he would have never even thought about checking out a girl in front of her the way he was now but then that's why they say alcohol lowers your inhibitions. He couldn't keep his eyes off her and the way she was dressed didn't help one bit. A tiny black skirt that barely hid her panties and a multicolored sleeveless shirt that ended just above her belly revealing another ring on her body.

She was hot, was the only thought that was running through Harry's drunken mind.

If she noticed where his eyes were wandering she didn't say anything. "I see you made a killing tonight."

"I cleaned the table," he said and began to snigger uncontrollably.

She laughed. "You need some help getting back home? You look like you're ready to pass out."

Harry blinked. There was no way he was going to pass out in front of the girl. That too an incredibly sexy one. Steeling his resolve he forced his drunkenness down and looked up at her and smiled.

"I'll be fine," he said charmingly, or at least tried to be charming. "But your company would be most appreciated."

She grinned, "Well lead the way."

Twenty minutes later Harry had his tongue playing peek a boo with her mouth and back pressed up against his door. One hand was blindly trying to open the door and the other was groping freely inside her shirt.

"God you know how to kiss," she said breathlessly.

The door opened and the pair stumbled inside. "This is going to be a night you won't forget babe," he whispered huskily in her ear. He knew exactly what she wanted and he was going to deliver.

"Oh god yes," she moaned as he sucked on her earlobe and ran his tongue down her neck.

It had definitely been a good day.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The next morning the light from the star Kalidasa filtered through the window onto Harry's face waking him.

He groaned and pulled the bed sheet over him wondering which god had he pissed off to give him this massive headache. But then memories of last night began to come back and a big grin grew on his face. He clumsily felt around his bed looking for another soft body next to him but there was none.

Frowning he stumbled out of bed wincing as a sharp pain stabbed him in the head and checked the bathroom but she wasn't there either. His eyes roamed around the room in confusion before they came to rest on his winnings from last night. The pouch looked smaller that he remembered.

He quickly rushed over to check if everything was still there and to his immense shock the pouch was significantly lighter. He turned it over and emptied it and found there were barely some ten credits left.

"No," he whispered in shock. He had just been robbed!

"No, no, no, no, NO!" His hard earned money had just been stolen from him. He curled his hands into fists in anger and felt his nails digging into his skin. He had just been taken advantage of! Rage coursed through him and he wanted nothing more than to find that girl and get revenge and get his money back.

How dare she steal his money!

As his eyes roved around in fury, they suddenly spotted a woman's underwear on the headboard of his bed.

It was _hers_ and there seemed to be something written on it.

'_Thanks for the mind blowing night and the money_. _If fate requires it, we'll meet again._' And she had drawn a wink and a little heart next to it and Harry figured she had used her lipstick to write it.

"That gorram bitch," Harry muttered. He hadn't even gotten her name and if memory served he hadn't given his either. His anger began to abate and resigned amusement began to grow inside him. Of course the sex was mind blowing, he thought glumly. She had been projecting her desires vividly.

A wry chuckle escaped his lips and he shook his head ruefully. This was a lesson well learnt.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Reunion**

**6 months later.**

A young man was walking down the narrow streets whistling casually. He wasn't very tall and had jet black hair which was in a permanently messed up state. He had distinctly dark green eyes and was wearing relatively expensive clothing.

"Been busy Potter?" a woman asked as he passed by her house.

"Only at nights," Harry replied chuckling.

Soon he reached his destination and typed in the pass code and entered his home. It was not overly large. There were two bedrooms, one decent sized kitchen which was fully equipped, a living room with a fine entertainment unit and one bathroom which had a small Jacuzzi in its center. Most of the house was painted in red and gold.

Harry Potter sighed heavily and sat on his couch and turned on his screen. There was nothing interesting on the cortex. It was the usual boring Alliance news and Harry had no desire to see what they had to say about the verse. He had been harassed by them enough.

The first two months of his new life on Beaumonde had been great. He had earned enough money to keep him entertained for quite a while and the lifestyle had been immense fun. He had to be careful during his gambling so as to not win all the time but when he won, he made sure he won big.

But he hadn't been gambling all the time. After his first time winning money and then loosing it he had quit his dirty job and tried to look for a better one but just has before it was next to impossible so Harry had given up and made a career out of his talent in mind reading; But that was at night. During the day he looked everywhere including the other cities on the planet for relics from the 'Earth that was' and any kind of book or sign that was remotely linked to magic. So far he had been unsuccessful.

He had tried to utilize his magic in different ways due to the lack of a wand but he couldn't do anything apart from legilimency and occlumency. That had been really frustrating for him and it still was.

After a month of living under the roof of madam Fang, Harry had managed to earn enough to buy a house in a less noisy and less violent area of the city. He had happily said goodbye to madam Fang and left with nothing but contempt for her attempts to throw one of her whores at him. He was only grateful that she was honest and cheap.

He had also tried to find out about the whereabouts of the girl who had robbed him but she was long gone and there had been no trace of her since. Harry sincerely wanted to run into her at least once. One night he casually brought up the topic about such girls with his new gambling buddies and he found out that there were quite a few boys and girls who run away from the comfort of their homes to escape the iron rule of the Alliance. They were the rare few who actually thought freedom was a right everyone was entitled to. Most of them didn't last in the harsh environment of the rim and were usually found and shipped back home and then there were the still rare few who managed to stand on their own two feet.

Four months into his new life the Alliance had gotten interested in his talent in gambling and they sent a representative to ask him to join them in a tournament they organized but Harry had politely disinclined. He had no idea how they found out about him and the fact that they had made him very uncomfortable. He had heard enough about the operations of the Alliance in the underworld from the people he played with and he didn't like most of what they had to say about them. But much to his annoyance they had persisted in calling him and it wasn't before long he began to get subtle threats from them. It was then he knew that they didn't want him to participate in anything; they wanted to know how he did it and whether they was anything special about him. So far they hadn't done anything unsavory much to his relief.

He was about to doze off when his communicator began to ring. Groaning he dragged himself to it and answered.

"You busy Potter?"

"What do you want Fanty?" he said yawning..

"It's Mingo."

"What do you want Mingo?"

"Just kidding I'm Fanty," said the man smirking.

Harry sighed. "What is it."

"I'm sorry to say that tonight's game will have to be postponed."

"Why?" Harry asked frowning. He had been looking forward to the game. Such high stake games weren't played often and when they were he always made a killing.

"We've got some important business to take care of."

Harry snorted. "Is that what you call it?" he said snidely. "And did you find anything for me?"

"Nothing yet, precious. Books from 'Earth that was' are very rare you know."

"Don't call me that and call me if you find anything," he said and disconnected the call. If he let them go on, he was sure they would end up winding him up again. They had a good knack of annoying people they liked.

Those two might be like pests but their network of contacts was enormous and they could do what he could without having to read minds. They were pretty much the twin kings of the underbelly of Beaumonde. They too had a long time ago been approached by the Alliance and when Harry told them about his predicament they had told him not to worry and to just ignore them. Unless he broke their laws they could do nothing to him and when he asked what those laws were they said the list was too long to bother with. In other words break the law and don't get caught was the advice.

Apart from being acquainted with Fanty and Mingo, friends were really hard to come by. Actually there were none. People liked to keep to themselves and the only way for a person to find a group of friends was to join up with a crew. But Harry didn't want that, he had no desire to hang out with those types of people. Apart from that all the general population did was earn enough to survive and if you had a family, to keep them happy. This is how life was on the border planets and the only city on Beaumonde where there was more life and enjoyment was the capital city, New Dunsmuir. Harry had really enjoyed the three days he had spent there.

He had spent all three in the company of a lovely companion who went by the name of Shirley who introduced him to a whole new side of the verse and he loved every bit of it.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It was night when Harry left his home to grab something to eat. He had found a brilliant place near the docks which served the best shou mian he had ever had in the city. Coupled with that, the toppings the cook created was simply mind blowing. Harry loved to waste his time by watching the space ships land with a cup of shou mian in his hands.

It had taken him some time to get used to the time system. Unlike Earth, the planet didn't have a 24 hour system but it was close to about 33 hours due its distance from the star and a year had 406 days. He had learnt that each planet had its own calendar system. For travelers in space there was a different system to keep track of time and it depended on your proximity from the closest star in the region they were in.

But now after 6 months of his awakening, one would be hard pressed to say that Harry didn't belong here. He was savoring the feel of the sauce when he spotted something he didn't expect to see.

"Kaylee?" he whispered incredulously.

He quickly gobbled up his meal and hurried over to the very recognizable ship and woman.

"Hey Kaylee!" he shouted excitedly. He failed to notice her glum and angry expression but that changed when she saw him.

"Harry!" she said happily and enveloped him in a hug. "How have you been and wow!" she exclaimed. "Those are some great clothes!"

Harry grinned. "Life's been good for a change. What about you guys? You here on business?"

Kaylee's mood plummeted. "Yeah," she grumbled.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's go to the engine room, I'm too depressed."

Harry frown-smiled at her mood swings but followed her nonetheless.

"So?" he asked sitting on the warm floor and Kaylee sat opposite him drawing her knees to her chest.

"Simon and River are leaving."

"They're leaving? Why?"

"We had a job recently and the captain took River along with him."

"Why?" Harry asked curiously. River was mentally unstable and taking her along for a job didn't make a lick of sense.

Kaylee hesitated for a moment. "Well that's not the point," she said finally. "The point is that Simon got mad and then they were attacked by Reavers and now then Simon got even madder and now they're leaving the ship!" She said all this in one breath and was almost breathing fire at the end of it.

"So I take it you like Simon huh?" he said, suppressing his laughter. She was just too easy to read.

"What! No I don't," she denied.

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Alright fine," she said raising her hands, "I like him and now he's going to leave!"

"Then tell him not to leave. If he likes you as well then he wouldn't want to leave would he?"

"Captain wants him gone," she said glumly.

"Then tell the captain you want him to stay."

"I did!" she said angrily. "And he gave me some gorram crap which I don't want to talk about."

"_Feh fa pi goh_," she muttered under her breath.

Harry snorted. "Did you just call Mal a baboon's ass crack?"

Kaylee smiled and muttered. "Yes I did. Anyway, what have you been up to?" she asked. "You seem to be loaded now."

"I discovered I have a hidden talent."

"Like what?"

"Gambling," he answered happily. "I've made enough money to last me for months easily."

"You're gambling?" Kaylee said disapprovingly.

"Don't worry, I don't lose and if I do lose its on purpose."

"Harry," began Kaylee but Harry stopped her. "Don't worry," he said earnestly. "What I do is not based on luck but on the method."

Kaylee frowned before her eyes widened in realization, "You're cheating!"

"Does it matter?"

"What if you get caught? They'll kill you!"

"I won't get caught," he replied confidently.

Kaylee looked at him, exasperated and began to severely scold him but her voice was drowned over the sudden din that erupted in the cargo hold. People were rushing in and they could hear Mal shouting orders.

"Looks like the captains back," Kaylee said dryly.

They left the engine room and were walking to the cargo bay when the ship began to vibrate and Harry felt it lifting off.

"What in the hell!" he shouted, alarmed and ran down with Kaylee right behind him. "Whoa, hold up you guys, let me off!"

But it was too late. There had been no warning, no nothing. They had rushed in, Wash had started her up and they had taken off. It hadn't helped that Kaylee had left the engine running.

"Potter?" Mal said in confusion. "What the hell are you doing on my boat?" He was holding River in his arms with Jayne a few steps behind him and Simon who was hovering around trying to take River from Mal.

"Why did you take off!" he asked angrily, "Turn the ship around and drop me back!"

"Too late for that," Mal said walking up the stairs. "We'll decide what to do with you later but now we have more pressing issues at hand. Jayne, get the handcuffs."

Harry watched incredulously as they took River and locked her in the storeroom after putting handcuffs on her.

Mal then went to the com and asked everybody to come down to the dining area. He turned around and found Harry standing an inch away from him.

"I don't know what is going on here captain," Harry spat, "But why couldn't you just go back and drop me? It would have taken you all but five minutes!"

Mal sighed. "We didn't have five minutes," he said. He then walked towards Simon and without any warning grabbed his shirt and slammed him onto the table.

"Eight months you had your sister on my boat and it never occurred to you to mention that she could go from crazy to a killer woman without any provocation?!"

"I didn't know," retorted Simon loudly and shoved Mal away.

"Well you certainly knew how to put her to sleep doc," Mal snarled.

Simon took a deep breath and calmed himself pushing the worry and anger he was feeling to the back of his mind. "The people who helped me rescue River taught me a safe word just in case something happened."

"If I say the words..."

"Don't say it!" yelped Jayne jumping out of his chair.

"It only works on River, Jayne," Zoe said rolling her eyes and despite the seriousness of the situation Harry found himself caught up in, he smiled.

"I still can't believe she took you out Jayne," Wash sniggered.

"She took out the whole bar, Wash," Mal said solemnly.

Harry's eyes widened. Did he just hear that correct?

"What do you mean she took out a whole bar captain," asked Kaylee, her eyes wide open.

Mal sighed. "We were passing along the goods to Fanty and Mingo."

"You were dealing with Fanty and Mingo?" Harry interrupted.

"Yes," he replied sounding a bit annoyed with those two miscreants.

"So that's why they cancelled," he muttered under his breath and turned his attention back to Mal.

"Anyway, we were making the deal when River came in and without any provocation she began to beat the gorram crap out of everyone in the bar!"

"What?!"

"And let me tell you I've never seen anyone fight they way she did," Jayne said. "Every move, every kick, every punch was executed with unbelievable precision. She's been trained to fight and I'll bet this wasn't her first time in a fight."

There was silence in the room.

"May I see her?" Simon asked hesitantly.

Mal glared at him before nodding. "Code's 5534," he said and Simon nodded his thanks. Mal then turned towards Zoe and said, "I think we need to talk to Mr. Universe."

"What about me?" Harry complained. "I still want to go back!"

"I'm sorry about this but for now you're going to have to stay here," Mal apologized. "Until we know more about this situation we're not going to make Port at Beaumonde."

Harry scowled and went to sit on the couch angrily. He wasn't angry at them but at the situation he suddenly found himself in. He was on their ship and he didn't have any clothes with him again!

Wash, Mal and Zoe went to the bridge and Kaylee joined Harry on the couch. Jayne gave a short nod to Harry and went back to his bunk. He had no interest in anything to do with River or Simon.

"So," she said cheerfully, "What else has been up in your life. Have you lost your virginity yet? Any woman you want to boast about?" she teased.

Harry rolled his eyes. He was way past the moments of blushing now! "Nothing to boast about," he said. "But if you must know there was this one girl worth mentioning."

"Oh!" Kaylee said delightedly. "You ain't a virgin no more!"

"That's right," he said dryly but inside he was beaming. "She took came onto me, had her wicked ways with me and then stole all my money."

Kaylee's mouth dropped open, "Are you kidding me!" she asked in a fit of giggles.

"I'm glad to see that you find this funny," he groused.

"How did this happen!" she asked while fighting to keep that grin off her face.

Harry sighed, "It's too embarrassing."

"Aww come on!"

Harry looked into her eager, grinning face and then murmured, "I was drunk."

"Come again?"

"I said I was drunk! She was the bargirl at the Maidenhead. I guess she noticed me making a lot of money and decided that I was a good target. She intercepted me outside and took advantage of my drunkenness."

"How did she do that?" asked Kaylee.

"She was hot, scantily dressed and was talking to me," he grumbled. "Actually in retrospect I'm glad I was drunk or else I would never have mustered the nerve to do what we did."

Kaylee dissolved into peals of laughter.

"I'm glad you find this so funny."

"It's hilarious!" she choked. "I can't wait to tell this to Inara! Maybe even River could have a laugh."

"Oh no you don't," Harry said immediately. "It's bad enough you know and you better keep it to yourself!"

"Or what?" she mocked. "You gonna discipline me? Spank me?" she teased and pinched his cheeks.

"Or the doctor is going to hear things you wouldn't want him to hear," he said innocently.

The laughter vanished from her face, her hands pulled away from his cheeks, which were now a bright shade of red, and a dangerous look entered her eyes.

"Like what?" she growled.

Harry just made a gesture of sealing his lips.

"Potter," she said warningly but Harry ignored her and was saved when Mal came down from the bridge with Zoe in tow.

"Kaylee, what are you doing here?" he scolded. "Aren't you supposed to be in the engine room making sure everything's alright?"

"Everything _is_ fine captain," she said.

"Well check again anyway," he said. "We'll be landing at Haven soon."

"What's in Haven?" Harry asked, trying not to laugh while Kaylee colorfully insulted Mal.

"Our dear old friend, Shepherd Book."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It was nice to see the preacher again, Harry thought. Everyone apart from Simon and River were gathered around a blazing pile of food enjoying the warmth it provided amidst the cold night. Kaylee was lost in her thoughts as she laid on her stomach and idly poked at the fire with a stick; Wash and Zoe were in each other's arms and Wash was gently humming a romantic song to his wife while Jayne was expertly explaining the workings of his gun to a few of the children.

It was a beautiful night, Harry thought with a relaxed smile, leaning against one of the rocks around them. He could make out the outlines of Mal and Shepherd in the distance and he could hear faint traces of their voices.

He lay back with a sigh and remembered the last time he had a camp fire was with Hermione and Ron in the forest of Dean back on the 'Earth that was'. He missed them sometimes but he no longer felt any guilt or depression at the thought of his old friends. He no longer felt that ache he had felt in the beginning when he thought about his failure at defeating Voldemort. Humans were still around and their numbers had grown to vast proportions. Magic had seemed to vanish but Harry didn't feel like it was a great loss. That world had brought along more trouble than it was worth. Of course that didn't stop him from wanting to know what had happened. He still craved to know the truth behind their disappearance.

It was some time later that Book and Mal returned and Kaylee had already fallen asleep. Zoe and Wash had long gone back to the ship and Jayne was struggling to get out of the mass of children that had fallen asleep around him.

"Let's head back?" Mal asked Jayne and Harry as he gently woke Kaylee.

"I'll like to stay out for a little while longer," Harry said.

Mal nodded and everybody slowly went back to their respective houses until it was just Harry and Book out there.

"So how have you been Harry?" asked the priest.

"Your money was very useful to me Shepherd and it was prosperity I found on Beaumonde," he said, remembering the preacher's words to him before he had left.

"I'm glad," he said smiling. "Did you manage that by an honest day's work or ..." He left the statement unfinished.

"Both," Harry replied honestly. "An honest day's work is hard to find in any city on that planet."

"Does whatever you're doing to earn your bread feel right?"

Harry thought for a while and then answered, "Yes, yes it does."

Book patted Harry on the shoulder and smiled. "I'm glad," he said simply and walked back to his house. An hour later Harry finally went back to the ship and lay on his old bed before finally falling asleep ten minutes later.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The next morning when Harry woke, Mal was getting the ship ready to leave.

"Where are you heading?" Harry asked.

"We're going to pick Inara," said Mal. "She's in a spot of trouble and needs my manly help."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Where is she?"

"New Melbourne. You can come if you want or you could stay here until we get back," Mal said. "It will take us at least a day or two to reach back here."

"I'll stay here," Harry said. "I want to explore this planet a bit."

"Your choice," Mal said. "We're leaving in fifteen so you should head out now."

Harry nodded and quickly headed to the engine room and said bye to Kaylee before leaving the ship. He stood next to Book as the ship took off.

"You know, you never told me how you ended up back with Mal," asked Book once the ship was no longer within sight.

"I saw Kaylee and went over to say hi," Harry began with a small smile. "We were catching up in the engine room and before I knew it the ship had taken off and I was stuck with them."

"Seriously?" Book asked in disbelief.

"Seriously," Harry replied. "Simon told me why you left," he added. "Do you feel like you made the right choice?"

"I did," said Book. "I know I'm doing some good in this place and the folk here need all the hope they can get."

Harry dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a sack of coins and handed it to the preacher.

Shepherd weighed the pouch in his hand and looked at Harry with his mouth half open. "Harry, there must be at least a 100 credits in this!"

"Repayment for your fifty and a little extra for your advice," he said. His eyes were shining with gratitude because he knew that without that start the preacher had given him, he would have been in a much worse state on an unforgiving planet.

Book nodded hesitantly and didn't argue. He knew the gesture was important and the boy would not take no for an answer. He also figured that if he carried a hundred credits as pocket change, his bank must be overflowing!

The Shepherd then took his leave as he had people to go and talk to leaving Harry to his own devices.

Harry winced as a gust of hot wind blew sand into his face and he wrapped the shawl around him tighter. Haven was even hotter than Greenhorn.

Having nothing but time on his hands he decided to trek up one of the hillocks. He just wanted to see what the view would be like. After packing some sandwiches, courtesy of the woman, and a bottle of water he set off. It took him a few hours and a lot of effort to navigate through the rocky surface but he finally reached the top.

It was even more depressing than he thought it would be. Apart from the few trees around him, there was nothing but red dirt and humongous rocks everywhere. He could see a number of mining fields in the distance and his heart clenched at the thought of those miners. These people were digging just in the hope of finding something that could make their lives on the surface worthwhile and by the looks of things they weren't very successful at that. They had a few farms that were capable of producing cereal and a couple of rivers that ran down from the hills up north but apart from that, there was nothing.

He understood why a person like Book wanted to live on this planet. The people here survived on the charity of people like Mal and they had no one else to look to for help. Book's presence gave them the strength to carry on.

Harry felt it would be better to rename the planet to Drought planet instead of Haven. The planet may be a refuge for those running from the Alliance but it was far from being the shelter they hoped for.

When Harry returned it was almost evening and the miners directed him to a small shack to bunk in. Once more before they went to bed they had their dinner around a fire. Harry looked into one of the men's minds and realized that this was a daily ritual for them. After a hard day's work they would gather around a fire and enjoy each other's company before going to bed. It was quite heartwarming to know, thought Harry.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The next day Harry went about meeting random people and began to ask them if they knew anything about books or artifacts from the 'Earth that was' but to his disappointment they knew nothing and he honestly hadn't expected them to know anything either. They had their hands full trying to survive after all.

His musings were interrupted when he spotted a ship coming into the atmosphere above them.

"Hey Father, there's a ship coming in!" shouted one of the boys. "I think its Serenity!"

Harry felt his guts twist when he saw the ship. He felt something terrible was about to happen. As it came closer everyone realized that it wasn't the ship they were expecting but a ship that was familiar to them all. It was an Alliance gunnery ship. One that was loaded with machine guns and soldiers.

"Take cover!" some screamed just as heavy gun fire began to erupt all around them.

Harry ran with his hands over his head as bullets whizzed around him and he dived behind a pile of cement. His heart was beating wildly and innocent people were being mercilessly murdered right in front of his eyes.

"Shepherd!" Harry screamed. "Don't we have any weapons?!"

"In a storeroom near the shaft entrance!" Book yelled back as he tried to escort a group of children to safety. Harry immediately made a dash for the shaft but he cried out and fell to the ground when a bullet grazed his leg. Even the graze burnt terribly but Harry got up with tears in his eyes and continued to run to the storeroom with a single minded purpose.

"Hey, come with me!" Harry shouted at one of the men running away and together they sprinted to the weapons cache. Harry tucked a pistol into his belt and slung a rifle over his shoulders. The man, with trembling hands, chose a shotgun.

An explosion rocked the ground and terror filled Harry's eyes when he saw one of the steel structures crash into the ground. The Shepherd had gone in that direction, he thought with dread.

His attention snapped back to the enemy as the Alliance craft landed and he counted at least 10 soldiers coming out with their sophisticated weapons at the ready.

"Okay," muttered Harry taking a deep breath. "Okay, we're going to head to that water tank over there," Harry said. When he didn't get any response he turned around and saw the man had closed his eyes tight and was shaking madly.

"Hey buddy!" Harry hissed and slapped him hard. "If we don't do something they're going to kill us so pull yourself together!"

He just nodded in fright.

"Once we reach the water tank I want you to stay there and cover me while I go closer to them alright?"

"Why'd do you want to get closer to them? Shouldn't we be running? And why are they attacking us in the first place!" he said hysterically.

"I don't know!" Harry hissed. "But do you want to help your friends or not!"

The man nodded.

"Good, then let's go."

The aircraft took off and began to make another pass around the area and Harry, along with the miner ran to the water tank before they could be seen. Once they reached Harry silently gestured at the man to cover him and he hurried closer to the armed men and hid behind a boulder watching them as they unleashed another round of heavy gunfire at anything that moved.

He was dirty, he had tears and mud smeared on his face, his right leg was dripping with blood but he refused to let the fear dominate him. He channeled that fear and changed it to fury. He signalled the man to keep an eye on him and then he closed his eyes and whispered "**_Legilimens_**_."_

Because he didn't have a wand anymore, Harry had focused lots of his time in furthering his capabilities in mind magic and had successfully gone beyond what a normal wizard would be capable of. What once required eye contact to execute, he could now do without it. He had taken legilimency to the next level and all he needed to do was focus on his target.

His mental probe spread like a water snake swimming looking for his target until he found it and slipped into the soldier's mind. Then with a focused will and magical power he took control over the man's moments.

Outwardly the man simply froze and closed his eyes. His team stopped and looked at him in confusion.

"4031?"

And then soldier tagged 4031 opened his eyes but it wasn't 4031 who was looking through them, it was Harry. The soldier then turned his weapon on his fellow soldiers and opened fire.

"What the hell are you doing?!" they screamed as Harry put as many bullets as possible into the Alliance soldiers before one of the soldiers pulled out a pistol and blew a hole in his head.

Harry's head snapped back roughly and he cried out loud clutching his head in agony. It actually felt like he had been shot in the head but fortunately he was very much alive. Blinking through the tears of pain he noted with satisfaction that only two soldiers were left standing and the rest were dead or on death's doors.

Pushing the pain aside he beckoned the man he came with over but as the man ran towards him the aircraft flew directly above him and Harry could only watch in horror as the man was ripped apart with machine gun fire.

"Nooo!" Harry screamed and blinded by anger he pulled out his pistol and fired at the craft. What should have been an insignificant shot turned out to be a massive explosion and to Harry's joy he realized Book had somehow made it to the antiaircraft cannon and was blasting away at the aircraft for all he was worth.

The remaining two soldiers saw him and opened fire immediately. Harry wasn't going to let that happen and with an animalistic roar he jumped out from behind the boulder and fired madly at them.

"Die you gorram bastards," he screamed and watched with satisfaction as blood sprayed out from their backs as they fell to the ground. He mercilessly pumped more bullets into the ones that were still moving and for a moment he thought it was over.

The whistle of a bomb made him look up and his dread pooling in his gut he realized it was heading straight towards him. He attempted to run away but it was too late.

The bomb impacted the ground some feet away from him and exploded; hurling his fleeing body into the air.

Harry's world went dark before he even hit the ground.

**-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Miranda**

"Don't move," Simon said gently as Harry regained consciousness. The doctor was almost done with cleaning and bandaging the boy's wounds. He had some pretty bad burns on his body, a couple of broken ribs and some shrapnel in his right arm. It had taken him some time but he was confident that Harry would make a full recovery.

"Wha- happened," Harry slurred. His mind was foggy and his body felt strangely light. He tried to move but the doctor held him firmly. "Where am I?"

Everything looked blurry to Harry and he could hear the sound of fire crackling around him. There was an unmistakable smell of burnt flesh lingering in the air.

"I said don't move," Simon repeated firmly. "You probably have a bad concussion and moving is not going to help."

Harry groaned and closed his eyes trying to put the broken pieces that were his memories together. Alliance, assault, murder; the three words pierced the haze in his mind and a single tear travelled down his cheek.

"Is anybody alive?" he asked softly. "Book? The children?"

Simon shook his head solemnly. "How did you survive?"

Harry blinked and then remembered the impact of the rocket. "Got lucky I suppose," Harry croaked grimly.

He then tried to push himself up to a sitting position but Simon won't have it.

"Please don't move," he pleaded. "I've just patched you up and your body is loaded with sedatives. It's a marvel you're awake but in any case I don't want you to move. There could be internal bleeding and I need to run a few more tests before I can let you up."

Harry roughly shoved his hands away and glared at him. "I need to see," he said, his voice radiating pain and anguish.

Simon stilled and then sighed. He quietly moved out of the young wizard's way. Harry was in one of the shacks which was still intact and he slowly walked out wincing in pain at every step. The pain was returning to his body.

The scene that met Harry's eyes was one of total devastation. "Why did they do this?" he whispered as he stared at the body of a boy not older than eight being carried away by Jayne.

"They did it because they are heartless," a stoic Mal said walking up to him. "They did it because they want River, they did it because they think they can get away with it, they did it because they are monsters."

Harry looked around and to his horror he saw Zoe and Jayne strapping the bodies of some of the dead on the hull of Serenity. "What are they doing!" he hissed in anger.

"We're going to a planet called Miranda," Mal replied instantly. His eyes were cold and there was no emotion in his voice. "To get to that planet we need to pass through Reaver territory and to do that we need to disguise the ship like one of theirs."

"Why?" Harry asked, his voice equally cold.

"Because that planet is the reason they're after River. It's the reason why all our friends are dead and it's the place we need to go to if we want to get some answers."

Harry looked around for River and spotted her applying red paint on the ship. Simon, seeing that Harry didn't need his assistance anymore went over to help his sister.

"Now, I need to know; are you with me or are you not."

Harry looked at the dead bodies once more and then replied. "I was in a war once," he said. "A war in which I had to endure the sight of my friends murdered right in front of my eyes. The man we were fighting was beyond human, he had become a monster and I was the only one who could stop him."

Mal listened quietly.

"I failed to stop him and I don't know how many people lost their lives as a result of that," he said dully. "I don't want to see people I care about die in front of me again, so yes, I bloody well am with you."

Once more Harry's story made no sense if history was to be believed but he could sense nothing but honestly from him and that confused him. But that was irrelevant right now.

"Do you think you can help out?"

Harry nodded stiffly.

"Then go and help," he said. Mal then called Jayne over and together they began to move the cannon to the top of the ship. Harry joined Wash and they silently dragged all the remaining bodies to one side. No words were exchanged and no words were needed to be exchanged. All of them knew why they were doing this and why it was so important.

Vengeance was a great motivator.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The slow crawl through the Reaver infested area was probably the most terrifying and heart stopping moment of Harry's life. Even Voldemort or Dementor's did not come close to making him experience the feelings he was feeling right now. He was reminded of the time Ron and he had entered the nest of acromantulas but now he was in a single closed ship surrounded by even bigger ships filled with humans born of rage and to add a cherry to the lovely horror they faced, they were in space. It was certain death if they were found out and it would be in the most horrifying ways imaginable.

They could hear the screams of people who had been caught by the Reavers over the com and it wasn't a pretty thing to listen to. He was standing next to Jayne who was hugging his favourite weapon tightly and muttering indistinct things to himself. River was in front of him and her mouth was half open and eyes wide as she stared at the ships outside. He didn't know but she could feel and hear every emotion that the people were going through and it took all her will power to not let it control her. Everyone else looked expressionless but Harry knew their hearts were ready to burst at any moment too.

"Wash," Mal whispered and he signalled his pilot to turn off the com. They were scared enough as it is.

Everyone sighed in relief as they miraculously made it through that dangerous belt. Once Serenity had entered the atmosphere of the planet, Zoe began to run a check on the stability of the planet.

"Every reading I'm getting says normal," Zoe said. "Oceans, land masses, no tectonic instability or radiation."

"Yeah but there's no power either," Wash added.

"Nothing at all?" asked Mal.

"Wait," Wash said suddenly, "I'm getting a signal. It might be a beacon but it's awfully weak."

"Alright, locate it and get us on the ground."

By the time they had zeroed in on the beacon they had flown over at least a dozen cities and it wasn't like they were small towns on the outer rim. They were enormous technologically advanced cities and were exactly like how Harry pictured the future to look like. But the only problem was there was no sign of life anywhere.

Mal, Zoe and Jayne suited up first and left the ship to look for any anomalies in the atmosphere but there was nothing. Finally deeming it safe, the rest of the crew exited the ship too.

It was eerie, was Harry's first reaction on stepping out. He felt like he had just stepped into the definition of a dead city and it sent a shiver down his spine. His grip on the gun Jayne had lent him tightened, expecting a sudden attack at any moment.

"The beacon is this way," said Mal checking his tracker.

Cautiously they walked through the streets and Harry almost jumped out of his skin when one of the advertisement boards lit up.

"This is just too freaky," he murmured, breathing deeply to calm his over taxed heart.

"Over here!" called Zoe and everyone hurried over to her position and saw what she had found. It was a dead decomposed body.

"No gunshot wound, no broken bones," she said examining the corpse.

"Poison?" Mal asked.

Zoe didn't understand the cause of death any more than he did. She just shrugged and looked around for more clues.

"There's another one over here," Jayne said, looking into a hovercraft.

"One more over here," Harry said. He turned to his side and noticed River who was steadily growing more distressed.

"Kaylee," Simon called suddenly. He had a look of warning on his face. "Don't turn around," he said but Kaylee did turn and she let out a shriek and backed away rapidly.

Behind her there was a corpse leaning against the glass window and inside there were dozens more.

"Why are they all just lying there?" Inara asked fearfully. She had just voiced the question on everyone's mind. "They all just look like they fell asleep!"

"And why are these bodies more preserved than the others?" Jayne asked pointing inside. He too was looking a little freaked.

"The room is probably sealed tight," Simon said quietly. "And judging by the looks on their faces none of them seem to be in pain. It looks like they decided to close their eyes and then never woke up."

"They're everywhere," River cried out with a choked sob. "They're all in my head and they're saying _nothing_!" she said falling to the ground clutching her head. "Why are they saying nothing?!"

Simon hurried over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "It's going to be okay," he said softly.

"No," she shouted with tears streaming down her face. "It's not!"

"She's damaging my calm Mal," Jayne growled.

"Jayne," Zoe said, trying to placate the big man but Jayne snapped back. "She's right! Everybody's dead. And they're dead for no gorram reason!"

"We should keep moving," Mal said, ignoring the fear his crewmates were radiating. "The beacon is close."

Harry cast an odd look at River and wondered what could have just happened to her. How could she know that everyone on the planet was dead? The first time he had locked eyes with her he had felt like she had been trying to read his mind but he had not dwelled much on that thought. At that time he knew if he had asked questions about her questions about him would pop up so he had put the thought to the back of his mind. But this was different. You couldn't read the mind of a dead person... that was just impossible!

Wash noticed Harry's pensive expression. "She a reader, she looks into the truth of all things."

"Like a mind reader right?"

Wash shrugged. "I guess it's that and maybe more."

"We're here," Mal announced as the beeping on his device got louder when they neared a small shuttle.

"There's nothing here," Jayne said, sounding a bit relieved. Ever since they had landed, he had been expecting a thousand Reavers to jump at him. That thought kept him holding his gun in a way where it was easy to blow his own head off.

River on the other hand slowly walked up to the control panel and put a recorder back into its place. Immediately the holographic image of a woman came into view and along with her images of the dead people popped up too.

"_These are a few of the images we've recorded_," she said dully. "_As you can see, it isn't what we thought. There's been no war here and no terraforming event. The environment is stable."_

There was overwhelming guilt in her voice and with tears forming in her eyes she whispered. "_It's the pax, the chemical that we added to the air processors. It was supposed to calm the population, weed out aggression."_She looked ready to break down but she composed herself and continued her report. "_Well it works. The people here stopped fighting and... and then they stopped everything else. They stopped going to work... they stopped breathing... talking ... eating."_

_"There's thirty million people here and they all just let themselves die."_

She gasped in fear as there was a sudden roar outside. "_I have to be quick,"_she said now openly crying. "_About a tenth of the population had the opposite reaction to the pax. Their aggression levels increased beyond madness. They have become... ... well they've killed most of us."_

_"And they've not just killed,"_she whispered. "_They've done things."_

"Reavers," Wash breathed, comprehension dawning in his mind. "They made them."

"_I won't live to report this, but people have to know,"_ she said. "_We meant it for the best."_The growling voice got closer and closer and the woman began to moan in terror. With trembling hands she raised a gun to her head but before she could pull the trigger the mutilated madness that was a Reaver burst in.

Harry eyes were wide in horror as he watched those creatures tear into her flesh and eat her alive. The image was so gruesome but he just couldn't look away.

"Turn it off," Jayne said, his voice tight with a look of utter disgust. "Turn it off."

Wash quickly turned it off and took the recorder.

River was trembling and suddenly she turned away and threw up. Simon quickly went to her side but she stopped him. "I'm alright," she said softly. "I'm okay."

One by one they returned to the ship. The truth was finally laid bare for all of them to see and as always the truth wasn't pretty.

.

.

.

It was downright horrifying.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The crew was in the galley of Serenity, restless. Their minds were heavy with dark thoughts and to quell the feeling of helplessness they each occupied themselves in their own way.

Mal was pacing up and down, his face devoid of any emotion. Jayne was sitting up against the kitchen table, his shoulders drooped and a bottle of whiskey in his hand to fog his mind. Zoe was resting her head on Wash's chest and he was playing with her hair absent-mindedly. Kaylee was sitting crossed legged on the chair and she alternated between staring at her feet and staring at Simon. Harry could tell she wanted nothing more than to be in Simon's arms at the moment like Wash and Zoe. Inara, the beautiful companion, was standing at one corner of the room tracking Mal's moments and there was an unreadable expression on her face. Harry couldn't tell if she wanted to jump on Mal and kiss him to death or shoot him to death; it was that kind of a look.

Harry on the other hand was playing with a pocket knife by repeatedly jamming it into the table and he was silently observing River who had been staring at her hands, placed symmetrically on the table, for the past thirty minutes. More than the events of Miranda, he was trying to unravel the mystery of River Tam.

Suddenly Mal stopped pacing about and faced everyone. It was a testament to his position as the captain, friend and leader that everyone immediately looked to him for guidance, hoping that he had a plan that would ease the burden on their hearts.

He lifted his arm and showed everyone the recording. "This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it and it stayed buried until River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew and they were right to fear it. Now there's a whole universe of folk who are going to know it too," he said passionately.

"They're going to see this. Somebody _has_ to speak for these people! Now you all got on this boat for different reasons and some of you by accident but you've all come to the same place. So I'm asking you more than I've asked before or maybe ever and sure as I know anything, I know this. _They will try again_. Maybe on another world or maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now or a decade they'll swing back to the belief that they can make people," he paused and looked at River. "Better."

"And I do not hold to that so no more running." A determined expression grew on his face. "_**I aim to misbehave**_."

"Shepherd Book used to tell me," said Jayne taking another gulp from his bottle, "if you can't do something smart, then do something right." His answer was clear. He was with Mal.

"Do we have a plan?" asked Simon.

"Mr. Universe," Mal replied folding his arms. "We haven't the equipment to broad wave this but he can put it on every screen for thirty worlds and he's pretty close too."

"But what about the Reavers?" Harry asked. "I mean they fell for our disguise once and they seemed to be a little busy at the time, do you think it'll work again?"

"Harry's right," Wash said. "It's not just the Reavers. I'm sure we've got the Alliance between us and Mr. Universe."

"That's two armies against our one bitty cannon Mal," Jayne said. He didn't say it sarcastically or negatively. He just wanted to know how they were going to pull this off.

"The Alliance is going to be waiting for us. It's a fair chance they know about Mr. Universe," Zoe said. "They'll see this coming."

A dark look came over Mal. "No they're not," he said quietly.

"So you have a plan?"

"Zoe, prep up a suit," he said, bursting into action. "Jayne, I want you to assemble every weapon we've got and distribute them to everyone on board. Wash, start her up and set course for Mr Universe. Kaylee, make sure this baby flies smoother than she ever has. Doctor, prepare yourself to deal with the worst of injuries and River, help your brother out."

"Why'd you want to go outside?" asked Zoe as she and Mal headed to the cargo bay.

"Because when we reach Mr. Universe. We're not going to be alone."

"You mean?" she gasped.

"I'm going to aggravate at the Reavers and make them follow us," he said with a smirk.

"Oh the Alliance is definitely not going to see this coming."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Guns and grenades," Harry muttered. "Where do you get all this?" he asked Jayne.

"Stole them, won them, bought none," Jayne said grinning as he and Harry loaded bags full of not just simple pistols but machine guns, semi automatics, shotguns. Each weapon looked different from the other.

"So what do you suggest I use?" he asked.

Jayne looked at him for a second before digging into the bag and he pulled out a silver gun which looked to be bigger than average and when Harry took it, it was heavier than it looked too.

"It's an automatic," Jayne said taking it back. "Press this button here and the magazine will pop out. Just shove another in when one empties," he said. "This here is the safety switch," he said and showed the tiny switch the wizard. "You just push it up to turn it off and down to turn it on. It's got twenty rounds so if you're aims good, you should have no trouble."

Harry kept nodding, drinking in whatever Jayne had to say about the gun.

"She's a little heavier than usual but it gives you better stability and lesser recoil force. She's the perfect weapon for someone of your build so don't lose her," he said and offered the gun back to Harry.

"You got it," Harry murmured taking it gently from Jayne. He then turned the safety on and shoved it into his pants.

"Keep five rounds of ammo too," said the big man. "You don't want to run out if those gorram Reavers jump on you." He grimaced as he thought about what those monsters would do to him if they caught him.

"Don't forget about the Alliance too," Harry said dryly.

Jayne glared at him. "The Reavers lay above the Alliance in my book but nothing beats my hatred for the Alliance now, knowing what they did on that planet."

Harry nodded grimly. He thought that Voldemort was the only one capable of such an act but clearly he was wrong. Non magical folk were just as dangerous as a person with magic. That's what happens when you have too much power at your disposal, he thought. You do things a moral human being would never do and if it goes wrong you just bury it instead of taking responsibility.

The com crackled and Mal's voice filtered through. "We're almost there people. So strap yourselves in. We've got a fleet of Reavers hot on our tail and a fleet of Alliance battle ships right in front of us."

"_To ma duh_," Jayne mumbled and rushed up to the bridge. Harry somehow lifted the heavy bags with all the strength he possessed and dragged them to the dining area. Simon, Inara and River were already there and they were sitting on the chairs holding on to the sides tightly.

Harry went and held on to one of the pipes and prayed that everything was going to be fine. He prayed that they were going to live and get out of this unscathed. Yeah right, whispered another part of his mind and anxiety began to pool at the bottom of his stomach.

Suddenly the ship shuddered violently and Harry realized that they had exited the ion cloud.

"Wash!" Mal shouted all the way from the bridge and from Harry's position he could see a dozen missiles flying all around them. His eyes widened as he saw one of the Reaver ships being blown to smithereens and the debris scattered all over them.

Wash somehow maneuvered around the dozens of ships around him and not to mention the missiles and guns being fired from both ends. All of them had to hang on for their dear lives as entered the atmosphere at unimaginable speeds.

Harry winced as alarms began to blare all through the ship and Mal yelling at Wash only worsened his anxiety. He looked at Simon and River and saw that they both had their eyes closed tightly.

And then everything stopped. The sound of the alarm, the roar of the engine, the lights, everything went out. Simon quickly got up and rushed to the engine room to drag Kaylee out of there and strapped her into the last of the seats.

"That was an EMP!" cried out Mal before the ship began to spin out of control. "Jayne!" screamed Mal and Jayne rushed down and tried to make his way to the breaker box but the spin was too much. Harry felt like his body was ready to be torn apart by the amount of G force that he was experiencing right now and then suddenly the ship roared back into life and Wash pulled them out of the spin.

"Hold on!" yelled Wash suddenly and Harry didn't want to even imagine what was coming next.

The ship crashed into the ground nearly throwing everyone out of their seats but Harry lost his grip on his precious pipe and went crashing into the cabinets in the kitchen. His eyes went wide when he saw a couple of knifes falling towards him and he managed to roll out of the way. He tried getting up and attempted to get a hold of his bearings but the ship then crashed into something hard and he was again flung into the air. His head slammed against the hard metal of the ship above him and everything went dark.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

When Harry came too, he found himself buried under the entire kitchen. Boxes, cupboards, cans, glasses, wood, it was all there above him and with a grunt he pushed some of it off him and dragged himself out.

The next thing he realized was that the ship was not moving and there was a lot of noise coming from outside.

His head was throbbing and he gently touched the spot and almost cried out when the throbbing got worse. He looked at his hand and saw that it was coated in blood. His eyesight was a little blurry and he knew it wasn't because his eyesight was bad. He had gotten rid of that problem a long time ago. He fought the sudden onslaught of dizziness and tried to make his way out of the ship.

He hadn't made it two steps when there was a roar in front of him and a body came rushing at him with a long knife raised high above its head.

Harry reacted instinctively. He grabbed the butt of the gun in his pants, pulled it out, aimed and fired. The thing cried out it pain but still hurtled towards him and Harry had to jump out of the way.

His eyes widened when he got a look at its face. It was cut up horribly. Blood was caked all over it and when it roared Harry realized that the thing had its tongue cut out too and then he understood that it was a Reaver. The Reaver threw the knife at Harry and he barely avoided it before burying three more bullets in its body.

The Reaver fell to the floor, dead.

His hands were shaking as the adrenaline rushed out of his system. "That was too gorram close," he said to himself casting a repulsed look at the once human creature. And this was all because the Alliance decided to play god, he thought in disgust.

He cautiously moved forward and looked around for signs of the crew, but there were none. He noticed that the bags of weapons were gone and came to the conclusion that they had left the ship and made their way to Mr Universe. They had probably forgotten about him in their hurry and that thought annoyed Harry a bit but then there was also the fact that he was buried under a pile of things and he was unconscious. They must have assumed he had gone ahead.

The noise of gunfire outside had stopped and when Harry came to the stairs he found himself face to face with a large number of soldiers who were armed to the teeth.

"Freeze!" one of them barked but all of them pointed their guns at Harry.

"Throw your weapon down and walk towards us slowly or we will kill you."

Harry stood still for a moment, his mind racing before he made a decision. He then threw the gun down and watched as it skidded to a halt a few feet from the soldiers.

"Good, now come down slowly!"

Harry steeled his nerves and summoned the memories of what these people had done on Haven. How they had killed so many innocent people. He thought about the millions of people dead on Miranda because of their leaders. He thought about the number of lives that the Reavers had taken because the Alliance had done nothing to keep them at bay or kill them all. After all, they had killed 30 million more in one stroke.

With these thoughts now raging through his mind, Harry stepped closer and closer until he was able to look them in the eye.

They were yelling at him to get on his knees but their voices had become a distant noise echoing in the background. "_Legilimens_," he whispered and tore into the mind of one of the soldiers and just like before they didn't have time to react as the man began to fire on his own men. This time Harry made eye contact with them and it was easier to control the man's movements no matter how hard he fought back.

Harry withdrew from his mind and ripped into another soldier's mind and made him start attacking his friends. The Alliance soldiers were in panic and they began to scatter. One of them had the sense to fire at Harry but Harry's mind was too aware of what was happening around him. He quickly dodged and pulled out of the soldier's mind and dived for his gun and began to fire indiscriminately at them.

His pupils were dilated as he plunged into the mind of yet another soldier. This time Harry made him pull out a grenade and drop it in the middle of the remaining soldiers.

Time seemed to come to a standstill as they saw the grenade bounce once, twice and thrice before it stopped moving. Harry pulled out of the soldier's mind not because he wanted to, but because he had to or else he knew he would have passed out from magical exhaustion and then he flung himself behind a pile of crates not caring if he got hurt.

Not a millisecond later the grenade exploded and Harry felt the crates rattle because of the force of the explosion.

Once the dust had settled he slowly peeked out from his position and saw that all the soldiers were either dead or unconscious with pretty bad injuries and there was a huge hole in the middle of Mal's ship. But he didn't care. He saw one still awake and he was trying to get to his radio.

Harry growled and stood up but almost fell back because of his overuse of magic. He felt like his head was about to split open but he steadied himself and slowly walked towards the man.

He could barely keep his eyes open because of the pain but he endured and picked up one of the soldiers' weapons and walked up to the man still alive.

The soldier looked up at him with terror. "Please don't kill me, I have a fa-"

Harry didn't want to hear it. He flipped the gun around and slammed its butt into the man's head knocking him out.

"Scum," he muttered and began to walk, following the trail of bodies. His fatigued mind noticed that all of them were Reavers and it probably meant that the other soldiers had gone ahead looking for his friends.

He tightened his grip on the rifle like weapon with one hand and pulled out his gun with the other. He was ready to die for his friends.

"_Stand down."_ The voice echoed in front of him. He rounded the corner and saw more than thirty soldiers with their guns trained on River.

Surprise filled his mind when he saw that she was holding a sword in one hand and an ax in the other. Her weapons were coated with blood and thick drops of blood were slowly dripping on the floor. Shock hit him when he saw that the floor around her was strewn with the bodies of Reavers.

"Had she killed them all?"

Behind her Harry noticed the rest of the crew looking equally banged up.

"_Stand down,"_ the voice repeated over the radio of the Alliance soldiers. "_It's over."_

Slowly the men disengaged their weapons.

"_Come get me,"_said the voice and three of the soldiers ran past the crew and the rest turned back to go to their ship. Harry was relieved that they ignored his presence as they passed by him and a few minutes later it was just them.

Harry raised his hands and with a small smile, he said, "Hi."

River hadn't noticed him and she flung the ax in his direction with deadly accuracy.

Harry yelped and dropped to the floor before his head was separated from his body. "Gorramit River, it's me!" he yelled.

She blinked twice and then recognition filtered through her eyes. "Oh," she said, "The nonentity."

Harry rolled his eyes and threw down the Alliance gun. "And you're a crazy killer woman," he shot back.

River narrowed her eyes at him and tightened her grip on the sword.

"River!" Simon called out tiredly. "Please don't attack the nonentity."

River glanced at Simon and then back at Harry while the rest just looked on, amused.

"Oh alright," she grumbled and dropped her sword too.

"Hi there Harry," Kaylee said cheerfully. "It's nice to see that you're alright. We thought you were dead."

How Kaylee could still be so cheerful was beyond him. Harry walked towards them and stopped beside River who still hadn't moved from her spot.

"Do you still want to kill me?" he asked her.

River looked at him with wide eyes and then a smile washed over her face changing her features from dangerous killer woman to a sweet little eighteen year old."

"Why would I want to do that," she said with a laugh.

Harry raised his eyebrows at that. "That change is just too creepy."

River just rolled her eyes wondering what the hell he was talking about and ran to Simon. Harry just shook his head and winced at the stab of pain which shot through his head.

"You alright there Harry?" Mal asked and Harry tried not to stare at the man's beat up body.

"I think I'm better off than you captain," he replied. "Did you get hit by a train or something?" he joked.

"Mal always get beaten up," Jayne said. "Don't know if he's won a fist fight in his life!"

"Hey, I wouldn't be down here if couldn't fight now!" he protested. "I just whooped an operative's gorram ass!"

"You got lucky," said a hoarse voice from behind. It was same as the one Harry heard over the radio.

A black man walked out of the lift with the three soldiers behind him. Everyone stilled, realizing this was the man in control of the Alliance troops.

He glanced at all of them and then turned to his men. "Help them to their ship and patch up their wounds," he commanded.

"Yes sir," they barked.

"I can move myself thank you very much," Jayne growled as one of them tried to help him up.

"Where's Wash?" Harry asked, suddenly realizing the fun loving pilot was nowhere to be seen.

An emotionless Zoe walked past him and said, "He's gone."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The rain was pouring down on the planet and Harry stood under it, his arms stretched out and face up feeling the water splash on his face. The last time he stood under the rain was when he was on the run with Ron and Hermione. A time that was quite literally several lifetimes ago.

It had taken them a fortnight but they had finally put the ship back together. They were ready to leave and enter the black once more.

"Hey Harry!" Mal yelled. "We're getting off this rock. You better get in!"

Harry sighed and hurried back to the ship.

"Were you trying to drown yourself?" Mal asked.

"I like the rain," Harry said shrugging.

"Help me with these bags," he said giving Harry an odd look.

"What in them?"

"Spare tools in case we have problems up there," he replied. Suddenly he stopped and his hand was quick to reach for his gun.

Harry looked confused for a moment before he heard footsteps behind them.

"It's not over you know," said the operative. Simon and Jayne had told him all about the operative and what he had done. But after watching the report on the Miranda experiment, the operative had had a change of heart and he had decided to help them out instead of capturing them.

"What's not over," Mal asked coolly. Harry was suppressing the urge to turn this man's mind into a puddle of goo.

"I can't guarantee they won't come after you, the Parliament I mean," he said. "Your broad wave about Miranda has weakened their regime but they are not gone and they are _not_ forgiving."

"Well that don't bode especially well for you," Mal mocked. "Giving the order to let us go, patching up our crew."

"I told them the Tams were no longer a threat, damage done. They might listen," he said with a shrug. "But I think they know I'm no longer their man."

"If they take you down, don't expect me to grieve over it much." Mal then gestured at Harry to continue the loading.

"I'll like to kill you myself if I see you again," Mal added.

The operative smiled. "You won't... There is nothing left to see," he said cryptically and then walked away towards his shuttle.

"Well let's get going then," Mal said looking out one last time and then he shut the cargo bay.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The operative stood in a chamber in his shuttle and in front of him was a huge screen on which five human shaped silhouettes could be made out.

"You know what the punishment for failure is operative," said one, a woman, coldly. From her voice could be made out that she was old and was probably in her sixties.

"I do," he replied. "But I was hoping I wouldn't have to live a life on the run in exchange for some information."

"What information?" barked a man. His voice was sharp and he looked to be the tallest among them all.

"Is it about the Tams?" croaked another. This man sounded like he was on his death bed and the operative recognized his voice. He had seen him on several occasions and was the military liaison to the parliament.

"No, it's not about the Tams but about another. A boy," he said. "Who recently joined up with the crew of Serenity."

"What about him?"

"One of the soldiers under my command had an encounter with him," he began. "Twenty three soldiers confronted the boy and asked him to surrender, to which according to the soldier the boy did."

The 5 members of the covert ops held their tongue and questions as the operative spoke.

"He then told me that something… something unnatural happened. The boy's eyes seemed to glow for a second, but it was for just a second so they thought it was a trick of the light."

A woman huffed in annoyance.

"And then the men in his squad started turning on each other. First one soldier opened fire on the squad, then another and then the third dropped a grenade right in front of them. All this happened in the space a minute."

"Did the boy somehow make them do this?" asked the man in the middle. His voice was trembling with excitement.

"I don't know," said the operative. "It all sounded too far fetched to me but I thought that you might be interested in what this soldier had to say."

"I think we are," murmured the old woman.

"Why didn't you bring him in?" barked the sharp voiced man.

"I wasn't given the order too."

"So we're giving you the order now. Bring. Him. In!"

The operative shook his head. "I've had enough. I just gave you this information because I don't fancy having to kill all the men you send after me."

Silence followed his words.

"Bold words," said the military man after a while.

"You know they're true. After all I was the best you had."

"We don't need to tell you that if we catch your scent then we will most definitely send the hounds after you," said the old woman.

"No, you don't need to tell me," the operative replied darkly.

"This boy, what is his name?" asked the man in the middle.

"Harry Potter I believe."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Some Truths**

_Haarrrry._

_Dear, dear Haaaarrrriee. The intangible voice whispered almost lovingly if it weren't for that undercurrent of malice coating that sweet voice._

_Cackling laughter and blurred enemies._

_Men in masks hovering above him._

_Needles being stuck into his body._

_Voices controlling his actions no matter how hard he resisted._

_Flashes of green followed by the stench of decayed flesh, an infinite stretch of human remains._

_Mutilated bodies from his past converging on him._

_Death._

Harry woke up with a scream lodged in his throat. He was drenched in sweat and his heart rate was beyond abnormal.

He couldn't remember what he was dreaming about.

He was trembling and it was hard to breath. He tried to get out of the bed but he couldn't do it. His legs felt like jelly and there was a healthy amount of fear coursing through him. He clenched his eyes shut and slowly counted to ten. "1," he said, his voice shaking. "2… 3… 4… 5…," and by the time he reached ten he had stopped shivering and his breathing was back to normal. But the remnants of the fear he felt was still running wild in his body.

Harry sighed heavily and removed his shirt and threw it in the corner of the room. Seven day's since the Miranda episode, Six day's since the funeral for Wash, Mr Universe and Book, four nights of bloody nightmares which he had never had any recollection of.

"Damn," he grumbled putting on a new shirt. He had packed up Mr. Universe's wardrobe since he had none and then headed for the kitchen. He always felt hungry after waking up from a nightmare.

Why was this happening to him now, he thought as he poured himself a glass of milk. He had heard about this from Moody, about how people who fought in wars suffered from night terrors and sleep deprivation. Miranda didn't count as a war as compared to the one back on Earth. He had gone through worse back then and yet when unsealed he never had any nightmares to deal with.

Maybe it was just catching up to him now, he mused. The happenings of last week probably opened a floodgate that shouldn't have been opened.

Harry emptied the contents of the glass in one go and felt better at once. Warm milk had a wonderful effect on him he discovered.

"A little early to be waking up isn't it?"

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin and tried to pull out a non existent wand. "Zoe," he breathed. "You almost made my heart fail."

"Well, glad to know I still have that effect on men," she replied with a smile. "Couldn't sleep?"

Harry shook his head, "What about you?"

"Had to check the navsat," she said nonchalantly but Harry knew better. "Go back to bed," she said and went up the stairs to the bridge.

Harry looked at her sympathetically before going back to his own room. Maybe it was possible to get a few hours of sleep he thought hopefully.

On his way back he heard noises coming from the doctor's room. Well looks like someone's having a good night, he thought with a grin.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"So," Jayne drawled, "Have we got a job yet?"

Mal glared at the man who wore a smug expression but Jayne just put his hands behind his head and leaned back.

Ever since the events that occurred a fortnight ago, getting a job had been difficult. Somehow it came to be known that Mal and his crew were responsible for the broad wave about Miranda and people across the rim had hailed them as heroes. But people like Badger felt that they were no longer capable of flying under the radar and contracting them for a job would simply attract too much attention.

"Being heroes without any money is a bitch ain't it?" Jayne mocked.

Mal didn't react to that and instead he put his foot under Jayne's chair and tipped it slightly. Jayne was already leaning back on its back legs and he went crashing to the floor.

"Dammit Mal!"

Mal just smirked and watched in satisfaction as Jayne drew himself to his full height. He looked ready to murder someone but instead he just straightened out his shirt, picked up the chair and sat back down.

"It's just been two weeks," Mal said calmly. "Just give it some more time and we'll be back in business again."

"That maybe so but until then do you expect us to starve?"

"Mal!" Zoe yelled from the bridge.

"Yeah?"

"We got a wave from Fanty," she said excitedly, "And he's got a job for us."

"See?" Mal said triumphantly. "We got a job."

Mal and Jayne hurried up. Even though Mal wouldn't admit it, he too had been worried about the lack of offers and for a moment he was even considering sending a wave to Adelai Niska, the man who had killed him once and then brought him back to the living only to torture him more.

"Put it up," he said to Zoe.

Zoe had taken up the job of manning the cockpit since the death of her husband. After the funeral she hadn't spoken a word about him to anyone and had continued her life like nothing had ever happened but all of them could see how much pain she was in and there was nothing they could do about it. Simon had tried to get her to talk about it but found himself an inch away from her shotgun the next moment.

"Fanty," Mal greeted, "I hear you got a job for us."

"Fortunate for you perhaps but not for us," Fanty replied. He hadn't forgotten what had happened the last time they had met each other.

"So what's this job?" Mal asked, getting straight to the point.

"We need you to find someone for us," he said. "We tried everyone else we knew but they were unsuccessful so we had to wave you as a… Um how do I put this… A last resort," he said sneering.

Mal raised his eyebrows. "I'm so touched," he mocked.

"But if you so much as do anything that remotely involves the Alliance you will never hear from us again, you got that?"

"Loud and clear Fanty, loud and clear," Mal said, doing his best to be as serious as possible but it wasn't working out very well.

"So the job?" Jayne prompted.

"He's a kid by the name of Harry Potter, last seen on Beaumonde but disappeared a few weeks back and we need you to get him to contact us as soon as possible," he said.

All three blinked in shock. Did he just say Harry Potter?!

"What do you need him for?" Mal asked feigning ignorance.

"That's none of your business," Fanty retorted, "If you can find him you get paid and the sooner you do that the better you get paid."

"And how much would that be?"

Fanty smirked. "Find him within the week you get 50, anything after that you get 30 and nothing more."

"Now that is quite unfair," Mal protested, "We have a name and nothing more and you're giving us as low as thirty! I say if we get this job done within the hour you pay us two hundred."

Behind him Jayne and Zoe were exchanging amused looks.

Fanty laughed. "Like that's going to happen."

"Within the hour," he ridiculed and started laughing again. He then composed himself and looked at Mal in amusement. "Alright, if you can find him in an hour's time you get two hundred but if you don't you get nothing more than thirty and trust me when I say that you people are going to find it very hard to get a job for quite some time after what you pulled off."

But much to Fanty's surprise, Mal smirked and then gestured at Jayne to bring Harry up. "Well you best get that two hundred ready Mr. businessman, cause the jobs done."

Zoe had a broad smile on her face now and Fanty on the other hand suddenly looked terribly confused.

"Harry Potter is on this ship right now," Mal said cheerfully. "So if you'd just hold on for a moment we can call him up here."

Said boy was busy playing cards with Simon and Inara and was winning handsomely.

"He's cheating," River said. She was observing the game with deep interest and was eager to try her hand at it.

"No I'm not," Harry shot back. "Name one rule that I've broken."

"I don't know," River said, looking frustrated. "But I know you're cheating."

Inara narrowed her eyes at Harry. "River see's into the truth of things," she said. "So if you're cheating that means you are most definitely cheating."

Harry just smiled charmingly and put his cards down. "Both of you have repeatedly checked me and quite thoroughly I might add," he said. "So how am I cheating?"

Simon and Inara looked at River for answers but the girl just shrugged. "I can't read him but I can see him," she said.

"What does that mean?" Simon asked confused. "And how can you not read him?"

River just shrugged again. "I'm going to read Kaylee," she muttered. "She has much more interesting things to say."

"Why can't she read you?" Simon demanded.

"How am I supposed to know that," lied Harry.

"Harry." Inara said his name sweetly but her eyes were glittering dangerously. "You know what I do for a living don't you?"

"Yes?" Harry said cautiously.

She batted her eyelids at him and leaned forward. "You should know that I can spot a lie coming from a mile away and you're good but not that good."

Harry gulped. The perfume she was wearing was wafting up his nose and making him very dizzy.

"I'm allowed to keep secrets aren't I?" he said while reinforcing his occlumency shields to prevent the companion from using her feminine wiles, the most dangerous weapon of all.

After they left Mr. Universe's planet Harry had decided that he would tell them the truth about his abilities but he hadn't been able to find the right time and moment to do so. Also, riling up River had suddenly become fun for him. He found it hilarious when she found glared at him angrily and then stomped away when she couldn't read his mind.

He was saved from further interrogation when Jayne thundered down from the bridge and called for him.

"There's a wave for me?" Harry said, perplexed. "Nobody even knows I'm here!"

Jayne smirked. "They don't but we just got a job and the job was to find you."

Harry instantly went alert. "Who is it?"

"A jerk named Fanty," Jayne replied and Harry relaxed.

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place," he said and made his way to the bridge.

"You know the _gorram hwoon dahn_!" Jayne exclaimed.

"Sure I do," Harry said in a matter of fact tone. "You can't not know him and his twin and be successful on Beaumonde."

He entered the bridge and Mal happily escorted Harry to the screen.

"I believe you owe us two hundred credits?" Mal said, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Fanty just looked at the captain with disdain. "May we have some privacy," he said acidly.

Mal glanced at Harry who nodded and he, Zoe and Jayne left but then quickly hurried to Mal's room to spy on Harry's conversation.

"What's the emergency?" Harry asked, settling into the chair once they had left.

"First things first," Fanty said and he looked irritated. "You remember when you told you to keep your nose out of the Alliance business?"

"Yeah?"

"Well congratulations, you successfully grabbed their attention and there's a bounty on your head now."

"What!"

"You heard me," Fanty snapped. "And I'm willing to bet my entire fortune that it was because you ended up on that _gorram_ boat!"

"Why is there a bounty on my head?" Harry asked instead, letting the truth in Fanty's words fly over his head.

"Don't know," Fanty replied, "But if you're on that ship that means you got caught up with that Miranda business. They were already interested in you and now you've given them a reason to go after you."

Harry sighed, looks like he would have to keep his guard up now. "Well what's done is done. Is that why you were looking for me?"

"No, but I thought it would be nice to give you a little heads up," he said sarcastically.

"I didn't put myself in this situation you know," Harry defended. "I accidentally ended up here."

"Terrible luck that crew is I tell you," Fanty grumbled.

"Anyway why did you want to find me if it wasn't to warn me?" Harry asked again.

"We found something on that list you gave us."

Harry's heart skipped a beat. "What did you find?"

"You're going to have to pay Mal the two hundred I now owe him and another five hundred for the information," Fanty said.

"Five hundred?" Harry said narrowing his eyes. "Now you know that wasn't the agreement."

"Coming across this piece of information took a lot more resources than we expected and when I say a lot more, I mean a lot more," the underworld dealer explained. "And plus you know that five hundred is peanuts to you."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine," he grumbled. "Now tell me what you know."

"It was extremely difficult and when I say difficult I hope you understand how difficult," Fanty began.

"I get it Fanty," Harry interrupted exasperatedly. "Now stop dilly-dallying and get to the point!"

"Fine. I was just trying to get the point across so to speak."

"Well congratulations, you got it across," Harry said impatiently.

"Anyway after months of inquiring and gathering information on almost all the planets in the verse, we heard of some strange happenings on Sihnon. Apparently there are some places where tech is said to malfunction for no reason at all. Stuff just goes haywire out of the blue and shit blows up too. Locals call it the wrath of the gods, but you should bear in mind that these are just rumors because further investigation showed no signs of anything amiss and everything works perfectly fine."

"How many such reports were made?" Harry asked. Further investigation showed nothing amiss could mean that the people had their memories wiped, he thought enthusiastically.

"Maybe around a dozen in the last decade and most of them were on Xi'an," he said and he emphasized on the word decade. He had no idea why Harry was looking for such places and what he believed to find there.

"Did you find anything else on the list?"

Fanty shook his head and Harry sighed in disappointment.

"Thanks Fanty, I'll send you a wave as soon as I get to Beaumonde," he said. "Tell Mingo I said hi."

"We look forward to a game when you get here," Fanty said. "We've got some new tricks to beat you this time."

Harry smirked. "So have I," he said and turned the screen off. He now had a new destination, the Alliance dominated planet of Sihnon. He now had a clue to the fate of magic and there could be a chance that the magical world survived after all.

He went back down and found himself face to face with the entire crew. I should have known they wouldn't give me any privacy, Harry thought irritably.

"An explanation at this point will be very helpful," Mal said.

"Eavesdropping is bad manners," Harry retorted.

"What did you have Fanty looking for?" Zoe asked, not beating around the bush.

"Family," Harry said immediately. "Is that wrong?"

"I thought your family was dead."

"I consider my friends my family and I told you I don't know what happened to them. When I left at Beaumonde I got to know Fanty and Mingo and asked them to get some information for me."

"And somehow you think that your friends will be at places where electronics malfunction?" Kaylee asked, bemused. "How does that work?"

"And where are you going to get seven hundred credits from!" Zoe asked. They had been shocked when Harry didn't even protest much about the cost of the information.

River unexpectedly spoke up. "Because they're like him," she said answering Kaylee's question but everyone thought she was responding to Zoe's question except for Harry.

All heads turned towards River. "What do you mean they're like him?" asked Mal. "Who's like him? Fanty and Mingo?"

Harry on the other hand interpreted River's statement in a different way. "Do you know them River?" he asked holding his breath.

"Dip your hand into a lantern and you find nothing," she said, staring into his eyes reproachfully, "It's full of light but there's nothing to find."

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "What does that mean?"

River turned to Simon, "I want a lantern," she said sweetly.

"Okay enough with the crazy talk and let's get back to you mister," Mal said firmly. "Uh... seven hundred credits! Where are you going to manage that from?"

"Did you think I was wasting my time on Beaumonde? I got rich."

Everyone stared at him dumbfounded except for River who was now conversing with a twig. Where did the twig come from Harry had no clue.

"How rich?" asked Jayne, his mouth was open and Harry could see the greed lurking beneath his eyes.

"It doesn't matter," Harry said with a tone of finality. "All that matters is we get to Beaumonde and then you get paid."

"And then what?" Zoe asked. "You stay on the planet or do you want to continue your journey with us?"

"Actually I was hoping you could find a way to get me to Sihnon," Harry said carefully.

"Well its going to cost you," was the first thing Jayne said. "And now that we know you're loading, it's going to cost you a lot."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the big man. "Is that how this is going to be?" he asked his temper rising. "I fight alongside you knowing the chance of death was very high and now you guys are interrogating me? _Again!_ A favor is going to cost me?!"

"That was Jayne talking, not us," Mal said. "But you have to admit there are many things you've been hiding from us."

"Well of course," Harry burst out. "I wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place! Did you think I would spill my guts the moment I got on your ship eh?" Harry said sneering.

What was at first a humorous situation was slowly turning ugly by the second.

"What was the bit about there being a bounty on you?" Simon asked speaking up for the first time. "Why is the Alliance after you?"

"Yes!" Mal cried. "That's the bit that worried us the most. Now we didn't have a problem with anything else but why is there a bounty on your head!"

"There is a bounty on my head," Harry growled, "because I decided to help you morons fight them. So as a matter of fact, it's _your_ fault there's a bounty on my head."

"Our fault?" Mal said incredulously. "I didn't force you to help us and obviously you did something before for them to put a bounty on you now. You don't see a bounty on our heads do you!"

"River has one," Harry snapped.

"What did you do to piss of the Alliance?" Zoe asked and soon everyone was yelling questions at each other without finding any answers to them.

Suddenly River let out a shrill scream effectively silencing everybody. "Will you all just shut up!" she said hysterically. "It's loud enough as it is!" And then she ran out of the room.

"River," Simon muttered worriedly and hurried after her.

Harry took a deep breath and calmed himself. "Why don't we all just sit down and I'll answer some of your questions," he said. "And let's not make it like I'm the criminal here."

"Well no one's saying that!" Zoe said.

"It's you guys who are the criminals," muttered Harry under his breath.

"Now just look here a minute," Mal began hotly but Zoe shut him up.

"What does the Alliance what with you?" Zoe asked.

"They want to know how I am so good at gambling," Harry said. "I made a fortune on Beaumonde by sucking my opponents dry."

"Because of your foolproof cheating?" Inara said accusingly.

Harry rolled his eyes and then said, "Yes."

"I knew it!" she cried. "There's no way anyone can be that lucky at cards! How do you do it?" she asked eagerly.

This was it, Harry thought. The moment where he would either tell them the truth or continue lying. Revealing half the truth was an option too. He didn't want to overwhelm them with things far beyond their understanding too fast.

"Well?" Mal asked curiously.

"Take a seat and maybe you should get River and Simon too, this would give you some answer to the annoyances River has with me," he said finally making up his mind. Half truth's it was going to be. He wasn't ready to tell them everything.

Kaylee was the one to hurry out and bring back the Doctor and his sister. She found them in the engine room and tried not to smile when she saw River sulking and ignoring Simon's attempts to get her attention.

"Hey Simon, River. Harry asked me to bring you guys up, he's gonna tell us some of his secrets," she said.

River snapped her head towards Kaylee and she then scarpered to the kitchen.

"You okay Simon?" Kaylee said giggling.

Simon nodded wearily and together they hurried to the kitchen, eager to hear what secrets Harry had to tell them. What sort of explanation could make the contradiction that he was make sense?

"Well why don't you ask me some questions you have and I'll answer them," Harry said.

"Where are you from?" Zoe asked immediately.

Harry shook his head. "I can't answer that just yet, but I will in time."

Zoe harrumphed. "I thought you were going to be honest with us?"

"I am," Harry said earnestly, "but there are some things you just won't understand."

Zoe wanted to protest but Mal stopped her. "How 'bout you tell us why River can't get a read on you then," he asked.

This was it. The moment of truth.

"She can't read me," he began carefully, "Because I am something of a reader myself."

Stunned silence greeted him. Even River was staring at him in shock.

"W-what?" Simon stammered. Did he just hear that right?

"My ability is slightly different from River's though," he said, trying not to laugh at the look on everybody's faces. "I can read minds and block other people from reading my own but unlike River, I can't see into the truth of things. River's ability somehow extends to inanimate objects too but mine is limited to the human mind."

"You can read minds?" Inara breathed, a little more than just shocked.

"That's what I just said," he said warily.

"And that's why you're so good at gambling!"

Harry nodded sheepishly.

"You can read minds!" Jayne gasped. "Have you been reading ours?!"

"No!" Harry denied immediately. "I wouldn't violate someone's privacy like that."

"Except when you're gambling," Kaylee said dryly.

"That's right," Harry agreed. "There are no morals when it comes to gambling."

"Hold on a second," Mal interrupted. "You can read minds?"

"Yes!" Harry said exasperatedly.

"You're a reader?"

"Not exactly."

"Prove it," River said. Her eyes were still wide and Harry could see a whirlwind of emotions swirling behind her eyes.

Harry sighed. "Don't go too deep or I might have to forcefully boot you out," he warned.

"Hold on a second!" Simon said raising his voice. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm lowering my mind shields so that River can finally acknowledge me as a human and give you guys proof that I'm not lying," he said coolly. He then turned to Mal asking for permission.

Mal just gestured at him to go ahead. The crew was still in a state of partial shock.

The young wizard took a deep breath and took down the defenses around his mind and the reaction that followed was instantaneous.

River gasped loudly and stumbled back. Harry winced as he felt the force behind her intrusion and let her rummage for a few moments while keeping his most important secrets locked deep in his mind.

"Oh," River whispered and then Harry gently but firmly pushed her out of his mind.

"I wasn't done," she said scowling but she was now looking at Harry in a new light. "Can you teach me how to control it?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know," he said. "I was taught in a very different way and I doubt I could do the same for you."

"Hold on, someone taught you?" Zoe exclaimed and Harry cursed himself for his little slip.

"Yes," he said in a resigned tone. "Where I come from there are many people who are capable of doing this."

"Why do I get the feeling there is more to this _ability_ of yours than you're letting on," she said suspiciously.

"Because there is. Explaining it would take too much time on my part and I'm quite sure you wouldn't believe me."

"Try us," Mal retorted.

Harry sighed. Now how was he to explain this, he wondered and then he decided to let them figure it out. "What River can do and what I can do, it's something like magic is it not?" he asked them nonchalantly.

"Well...," Kaylee began and then she jumped up as realization about what Harry was trying to say hit home. "Are you saying you're a magician!" she said in amazement.

"No, I'm saying I'm a wizard."

There, he had said. Harry made sure to keep his emotion firmly under control.

Jaw's dropped and Harry began to count.

He reached fifteen when Jayne exploded. "You're saying you can do magic! What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means I can do magic," Harry deadpanned. "I can levitate things, turn you into a toad, hurl powerful curses around, turn invisible, the whole nine yards."

"Prove it," River demanded again, her eyes had lost a bit of the hostility she usually reserved for Harry and now she was eyeing Harry like a piece of meat that was to be dissected. Frankly it made Harry feel more wary of the girl.

"I can't," he said. "I need a wand."

Mal scoffed, clearly not believing Harry.

"It's what I had Fanty and Mingo looking for," he explained patiently. "My kind of people are very good at hiding themselves and I needed their help if I had to find them."

"What does malfunctioning technology have to do with that?" Zoe asked confused.

"Large amounts of magic and electronics don't work well together," Harry said. "It's a long shot but I believe that there could be a magical society on Sihnon."

"Makes sense," River said thoughtfully. "Sihnon has always been associated with a lot of mystical tales and the city itself is described as a magical one."

"That's just because of its beauty," Inara countered. "But it's true, Sihnon does have a lot of fairy tales in its long history. One of the most popular local legend says that Lu'Weng, the capital of Sihnon, was once a fire-breathing dragon that fell from the sky and was bound to the planet with ribbons."

"Dragons!" Harry exclaimed.

"That's right," Inara said, smiling as she recalled her time spent on that planet.

Harry eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Dragons aren't real," Simon scoffed.

"Oh yes they are," Harry said looking positively radiant. "Look's like Sihnon is definitely going to be my next destination."

"You don't actually believe all this do you!" Jayne shouted. "It's just a bunch of gorram nonsense! I'll bet you're an escapee from a loony bin and that's why the Alliance wants you back."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Do you want me to demonstrate a little of my powers?"

"I thought you needed a, what's it called, a _wand_ to do magic," Mal mocked.

"Not for mind magic," Harry retorted.

"Well then please demonstrate," Zoe said immediately.

"Wasn't River proof enough though?"

Everyone turned towards the reader.

River hid behind Simon when she found all the attention diverted toward her. It wasn't often that she had so many eyes focused on her and it was making her uncomfortable.

"River?" Simon said gently.

"He does have some sort of wall protecting his mind," she said slowly. "When he removed them I could read his mind and I saw Simon's crush in there."

Everyone nodded and then their minds processed her words.

"Wait what?"

"The girl who slept with you and then robbed you?"

"You saw that memory of all things!"

"Simon had a crush on her when he was fourteen," she said with a small smile. "She used to make him do her homework all the time."

Everyone began to start asking questions at the same time and Kaylee began to laugh out loud. She was the only one who knew the story.

"What was her name!" she asked River between laughs.

"Denise," River said. "She was nice to me but she was always fighting with her family."

"Will someone please explain to me what's going on here!" Simon shouted. "River?"

"No don't!" Harry shouted back. Why the hell did River have to pull out that memory of all things!

"Are we still believing this psycho's story!" Jayne interrupted rudely. "One crazy confirming another crazy's story don't make it true. It just makes it insane."

Mal sighed. Why couldn't he just have a normal crew, he wondered for the first time. Now he had a trigger happy giant, an unstable killer girl,_a magician_ and an overprotective doctor!

"Why don't we all calm down," Zoe said wisely and everyone slowly settled down but were still burning to ask their respective questions. "Now River confirmed that Harry does have something like a shield in his mind but can you do anything apart from blocking out River," she asked. "From what you said it sounded like there's more you can do."

Harry nodded hesitantly.

"Well then show us," Mal said.

Harry sighed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days. He closed his eyes and focused.

"Mal is thinking about Inara's beautifully proportionate derriere. Zoe is wondering if I can kill people with my mind. River is thinking… huh, River seems to be thinking about sex. Kaylee's wondering what amazing tricks I can do if I had a wand." Harry stopped and looked at Jayne with annoyance. "Jayne however wants to throw me off the ship... how am I doing so far?"

"Can we hurl him into space?" Jayne deadpanned.

"River's thinking about sex?" Simon asked looking horrified. His baby sister was thinking about such things!

"It's all that seems to be on her mind lately," Harry said shrugging and then he turned back to Mal who was avoiding Inara's glare.

"What else can you do?" Zoe asked in interest.

"Can I get a volunteer?"

"I'll do it!" Kaylee said immediately.

"Kaylee," Simon began in disapproval but Kaylee just waved him away. "It's alright Simon," she said earnestly. "Harry wouldn't hurt me."

Harry looked around to see if anyone else had a problem except for Jayne.

"Go on," Mal encouraged, looking on curiously.

"Don't panic," he warned Kaylee. He looked into her eyes and then whispered, "_legilimens."_

Everybody watched in anticipation as all emotion was wiped clean from the mechanics face. She started walking to the table and leaped onto it and began to spin on her foot like a ballerina with her arms above her head!

Mal turned to Harry incredulously, "Are you _making_ her to that?!"

But Harry didn't respond and they noticed he too was not all there.

Suddenly Kaylee stumbled and Harry's head jerked up, life returning to his eyes.

"That was terrifying!" Kaylee gasped as she stumbled down from the table and collapsed into a chair feeling dizzy.

"Are you alright?" Simon asked in concern.

"Yea, yea," Kaylee said breathing heavily. "Wow, I mean wow!"

"What was that?" Zoe asked frowning.

"I took control of her mind."

"It was like I was pushed into one corner of my mind and I didn't have any control over anything!" Kaylee exclaimed. "I almost had a panic attack."

"This is probably why the Alliance has put a bounty on my head," Harry admitted.

"Have you ever used this talent of yours on us?" Mal asked quietly. His body was relaxed but his eyes betrayed the shock he was experiencing. Was he supposed to believe this?

"No," said Harry firmly. "Just on Alliance soldiers."

"When?" Jayne growled hostilely.

"On Haven when they attacked us and when we went to see Mr. Universe. Someone must have spotted me controlling them and reported it to the higher ups."

"No shit," Mal deadpanned. "You could have helped us out then you know. That gorram operative almost killed me!"

Harry bristled. "Might I remind you that you all left me on the ship to fend off more than a dozen Alliance soldiers and not to mention the Reavers!"

"Oh," Mal said remembering the sequence of events and an image of Wash flashed in his mind. "Sorry about that."

Silence befell the crew.

"So what now?" Harry asked after some time.

"I don't know," Mal said. "All this is still sinking in. Magic, mind control, wizards, it's insane."

Harry smiled grimly. They still didn't know the whole truth and he tried to imagine their reaction then.

"Will you help me?" he asked hopefully.

Mal sighed and glanced at Zoe and then after a few seconds she gave the barest of nods. "Let's get to Beaumonde and meet up with Fanty and Mingo," he said finally. "After that we'll see where we go next. I think all of us need a day to process what we've learned. I still feel like I'm dreaming and you're just a figment of my imagination."

Inara quietly sneaked behind Mal and pinched him hard.

"Ouch!" he yelped rubbing his neck. "What the hell was that for?!"

"It's not a dream then," Inara said smugly. "And of course we'd be happy to help you Harry," she said warmly. "Mal's puny mind just needs more time than the rest of us to say yes."

Harry grinned, a feeling of happiness bubbling inside him. A part of him had been worried about being rejected by them.

"My mind is not puny and I was going to say yes anyway!" he said hotly.

His anger faltered when he saw Inara's sly smile and then realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

"I just got conned didn't I."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Plans**

All occupants of Serenity were fast asleep save for one. River Tam was wide awake and she had a single purpose in mind. She slipped out of her bed and soundlessly walked to the infirmary. The low thrum of the engine was the only sound reverberating through the ship and River made sure that no one was around to catch her. Once satisfied she climbed the largest cabinet and gently slid open the hatch to the air vents and acrobatically hauled her body inside. Silently she navigated through the narrow vent as she had done many times before until she reached an intersection.

To her left was Simon's room. She spied on her brother when he was alone with Kaylee many times since Miranda. The sensations she felt even they were engaging in certain activities fascinated her to no end and she was tempted to make her way there once more but then she remembered he was in Kaylee's room tonight and almost regretfully turned left. A few paces were all it took and River was right above Harry's room.

She removed a screwdriver from her pocket, undid the fastenings on the hatch one by one and then lifted the heavy hatch with unbelievable ease and put it aside. She then dropped herself into the room not making a sound all the way. Part of the mission was accomplished.

There he was she noted idly. He was fast asleep but he also seemed to be awfully restless. His eyes were shut tightly and he was muttering incoherently. But that was irrelevant, that was not the mission. River walked to Harry and then carefully climbed over him making sure not to put too much weight on him causing him wake up. She then brought her face close to his until her lips were just an inch away from his.

She looked into his shut eyes imagining they were open and then let out a breath she had been holding. Closing her own eyes she placed her hands on his temples and then slipped into his mind.

It had worked. His mind shields were not strong when he was asleep and it was easy to go through them. Her heart began to beat faster as images rushed past her and pieces of his memories began to play in front of her.

A cupboard, a desperate and tiny bespectacled boy being chased, a thin shaggy haired man smiling, an old man waving a stick and producing an armchair out of thin air, fighting with a tall black man, his awakening on Serenity, a conversation with twins. All the images were accompanied by snippets of conversations but none of them were coherent enough to understand. A fight, sticks emitting flashes of light, Harry at school, Harry learning magic, Harry laughing, Harry smiling, Harry screaming, Harry fighting, Harry being tortured. This was River's first time reading someone's mind in such a fashion and she didn't have any semblance of control. Her breathing became labored as the memories became more intense by the second. She tried to slow down the speed of the memories but she found that she was unable to do so and she also realized that she didn't know how to leave his mind too. Panic hit her like ice cold water; she was helpless in the face of the turbulent memories, but suddenly it all stopped and she sucked into Harry's dream.

An endless sea of blood surrounded her and Harry was standing knee deep in the middle of it. Anguish was painted in his eyes. The rush of images had stopped and River slowly moved towards Harry and as she moved closer she realized that there were bodies floating all around him. Pale, with their eyes wide open and staring at Harry accusingly.

_"It was your fault," _whispered one of the bodies as they floated past him and then River realized these were Harry's friends. She had seen him fighting alongside them and now they were dead. River watched in horrid fascination as Harry pleaded for forgiveness and fell to his knees. The ocean of blood rippled and transformed into a desert of dead rotting bodies. A red sun was beating down upon them and Harry was once again surrounded by his friends. Only time they were a gruesome sight. Maggots falling out of their eyes, flesh burnt away and bones sticking out at unnatural angles.

River felt like throwing up and on the outside her grip on Harry's head tightened and she herself began to shiver uncontrollably.

The nightmare was becoming as real as it could possibly get to her like it was for Harry and then Harry woke up.

Harry sat up with a sudden jerk and immediately his head exploded in pain. Terror was once again coursing through his veins and once more he counted to ten in an attempt to calm his nerves. It had become a ritual of sorts, wake up being terrified out of your mind and slowly count to ten. It always helped him to an extent but tonight the physical pain his forehead was experiencing was new.

It took him some time but soon enough he realized that there was someone else in bed with him. His eyes focused on the figure and his eyes widened in surprise.

"River?"

Said girl had backed up to the other end of his mattress and was rubbing her forehead with a grimace. "That hurt," she muttered avoided his eyes.

"River what are you doing here?!" he gasped and then realized why his head was hurting. It had smashed into River's and that could only happen if she was on top of him!

He looked at her incredulously, "Were you on top of me?" he asked voicing his thoughts.

"Yes?" she said hesitantly. Harry noticed the girl was behaving very out of character. It was almost like she had been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

"Why were you on top of me and how did you get in?" he asked angrily.

River sighed.

"You're a mystery and I don't like mysteries," she said. Her initial guilty expression changing to one of righteous anger.

"So you decided to lie on top of me! No wait..." Harry's mind cleared and then a realization struck him. "Were you trying to read my mind?" he asked quietly.

"It's not called trying if you succeed," she grumbled.

"What did you see?" he asked her, furious.

River didn't reply but this time she looked Harry in the eye. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I had to know!"

"No you didn't," Harry snapped. "You wanted to know, now tell me, _what did you see_!"

"I saw your friends," she said softly. "I saw your magic, I saw your friends and... and I saw your dreams."

Harry stilled.

"What were they about?"

"They were about death," she told him and a shiver ran down her spine. "They were horrible."

The anger building up in Harry left just as quickly as it had come and exhaustion began to seep into his bones. He sighed tiredly and removed his sweat drenched shirt.

River's eyes widened when she saw his naked chest but Harry wasn't paying attention to that. He got out of his bed tiredly and put on a new shirt.

"It's bad manners to read another's mind without their permission you know," he told her.

"Can you teach me how to control it?"

"No," Harry said shaking his head. "You'll have to figure that out on your own. The way I was taught to read minds and shield my mind was not a pretty method."

"Can't you try?" she asked and Harry wanted to say yes looking at the pleading expression on her face.

"It's not possible without a wand," he said finally. "All I can do is read your mind and I don't think that will be of any help."

"I have nightmares too, you know," she told him. She got off the bed and moved closer to him. "They're about my time at the academy and they're horrible."

"You're acting surprisingly sane you know that," Harry said uncomfortably. He didn't want to talk about nightmares.

River smiled at that. "I have my moments and not being able to read you helps."

"As I recall you not being able to read me lead you to conclude I don't exist," he said raising his eyebrows.

"That was then," she said shrugging. "And this is now."

They just stood there staring at each other for a few minutes before Harry cleared his throat and got her attention.

"How did you get in here? The door is still locked."

River pointed up. "From there."

Harry looked up and spotted the opening in the ceiling. "I'm going to have to bolt that from the inside," he muttered and then glanced at River who was looking at him innocently.

"I need a drink," he said shaking his head and unlocked his door and made his way to the galley. "Milk would be my first preference but we're all out of that."

River followed him.

He opened one of the cupboards and pulled out some whisky, poured it into a glass, mixed some water, took a sip and then grimaced.

"Jayne has the worst taste when it comes to liquor," he said making a face.

"Jayne only has a taste for weapons," River said sagely.

"And crudeness," Harry added.

"Don't forget indecency," River said grimacing.

The pair lapsed into silence while Harry continued to drink making faces every time he took a sip.

"Why are you drinking that if you don't like it?" River asked curiously.

Harry shrugged. "I've been having shitty nightmares since Miranda and I feel exhausted when I wake up. Alcohol dulls my senses and it seems like the thing to do when you feel like a herd of Hippogriffs just ran over you," he explained. "Usually I have some milk but like I said before we're all out of milk and this is the only substitute that I have."

"You know that's bad for your liver," River said disapprovingly while wondering what sort of creature a Hippogriff was. "If you drink too much there will be fat accumulation in your liver which will cause it to perform less efficiently although it depends on how much alcohol you consume and this is just the first stage."

Harry glared at her. "I hardly drink," he retorted.

"That's where it starts," River sniped. "The more often you drink the faster it becomes a habit and the deterioration of your liver isn't the only effect. It raises your blood pressure, increases the risk of a heart attack or a stroke, your appetite is affected and it has several psychological effects like depression, anxiety…."

"River shut up," Harry said irritably. "If I wanted a lecture I would have asked for it. And why are you so chatty anyway!"

River huffed and folded her arms. "I was just trying to help," she grumbled.

Harry rolled his eyes and put the glass away. He didn't feel like drinking anymore. "Why are you still here anyway?" he asked her. "Don't you want to sleep?"

"I'm waiting for your answer," she replied.

"What answer?"

"Teach me how to control it."

"River I told you I can't," he said tiredly. "First of all I'd need a wand to even make an attempt and the way I was taught cannot be possibly replicated."

River shook her head stubbornly. "That's not an answer."

"That _is_ an answer and you weren't complaining before," Harry said. "But if you want a straightforward answer here's one, NO!"

"No, that's not the right answer," River said again. "You must teach me."

"And I said I can't. Why can't you get that into your psychotic brain?"

"How can you know if you haven't even tried?" River retorted. "You just don't want to teach me."

"If I could teach you I would!" Harry exclaimed. "But it's impossible for me without a wand!"

"No," River said putting her hands on her hips. "If you can do it without a stupid magic stick then why can't I?"

"Because I'm a wizard and you're not," Harry patronized. "And how many times do I have to repeat it, I was taught in a very unconventional way and I can't do the same for you."

"How do you know that," River demanded, anger was not leaking into her voice. "I'm a reader and for all you know it could be possible."

"I'm not going to argue with you anymore," he said. His temper was rising and his headache was worsening.

"_Qing wa cao de liu mang_," River swore taking a few steps towards him, her eyes wide and dangerous.

"Like I understood a single word of that," Harry sneered. He had no idea why she was getting so worked up about this. Couldn't she understand that he simply couldn't?

"It means you're a frog humping son of a bitch," she spat into his face.

"Well at least I'm not all loopy in the head and go into psychotic fits screaming like someone just shoved a red hot rod up my ass!" he shouted right back at her.

River narrowed her eyes and clenched her fists. "If you'd teach me how to control it I wouldn't be going to those psychotic fits," she hissed.

"All I can do is read your mind and probably make you do things against your will," he growled. "How is that going to help you?"

"_Chwen,"_ she spat at him and then stomped on his feet before turning on her heel and storming back to her room.

Harry winced as pain flared up in his feet. "Psycho!" he yelled at her retreating back.

"Freak," she screamed back and slammed her door shut.

Harry's blood was boiling and he wanted to go and yell obscene things at her but he controlled himself and took a few deep breaths and hurled insults at River in his mind instead. Why the hell wouldn't she understand!

"That was interesting," came Mal's voice from the other end of the room and Harry nearly jumped out of his skin.

Simon, Kaylee, Mal and Inara were standing there with broad smiles on their faces.

"Your sister," Harry said to Simon angrily, "Has more than a few loose screws in her head!"

"River can't control her emotions. It's impossible for her in her current state of mind. Because of what the Alliance did to her, her reasoning ability has been affected too," Simon said apologetically with resentment towards the Alliance. "And you're the only one she can't read. At first she was frustrated because she couldn't read you and now she's frustrated because you can control it and she can't."

"So does that means she can't take no for an answer?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I'll go talk to her," he said smiling strangely and hurried to his sister's room and knocked.

"Go away!" came an angry voice from inside.

"River it's me, Simon," he said soothingly.

"I said go away!" she yelled and a thump followed. She had thrown the pillow against the door.

Simon came back looking sheepish. "She doesn't want to talk," he said mildly and rapped Kaylee behind her head when she started giggling.

"Now don't you start fighting too," Inara warned. "One lovers spat is quite enough for today."

Harry turned red and started spluttering.

"It's alright Harry," Inara said wickedly. "Things like this happen."

Harry just shook his vigorously. "This was not a lovers spat! This is me being reasonable and her being psychotic!"

"Don't call my sister that!" Simon said immediately.

"Oh now you don't start," Harry growled. "I've had enough of arguments for today."

"Why can't you teach her anyway?" Mal asked.

"It's a very difficult art to master and as I said numerous times over the past hour, I need a wand if I have to even try."

"A magic stick?" Inara questioned while pouring cereal for her, Harry and Simon.

Harry nodded.

"Anyway, we should be reaching Beaumonde in a few hours," Mal said putting an end to all conversations. "Kaylee, check the entry couplings and make sure everything's shiny."

"Aye, aye captain," she said saluting and headed off to the engine room.

Mal turned to Inara, "You're going to be spreading your legs when we get there?" he asked innocently. "Do we need to stay here for more time than necessary?"

Harry and Simon choked on their cereal.

"How sweet of you to ask Mal," she said acidly. "But no I won't be spreading my legs as you so eloquently put it but I am considering options on how to sever your balls and feed them to the dogs but I doubt even _they'd_ want it."

Harry and Simon choked again.

"Now there's the whore we all know and like," he said smiling happily and then ducked when Inara's bowl went flying towards his nose. It smashed into pieces when it made impact with the wall behind him.

"That bowl costs money! You better pay for it!" he yelled and hurried into the bridge before she could throw anything more dangerous.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she said diplomatically to the two men and then went back to her shuttle.

Simon and Harry exchanged amused looks and continued eating. It was going to be one of _those_ days.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Your house is amazing Harry!" a wide eyed Kaylee said as she absorbed the size and class of his house. It wasn't that big but it was bigger than any Kaylee had ever seen. Plus it felt modern and had all the new digital toys.

"Ours was much bigger," River said snidely sitting on the couch cross legged.

"Do I look like I care?" Harry retorted.

"Stop it," Simon warned. "River do you remember any part of the lecture I gave you before we left?"

"It was a boring lecture," River pouted. "I don't like to listen to lectures."

"All the same, the highlight of the lecture was _play nice_!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Mal said rolling his eyes. He was busy making Inara and himself a drink from Harry's surprisingly decent collection of liquor.

"Your place is real nice Harry," Inara said warmly. "It's got a very homely feel and I'm shocked that's so clean."

Harry grinned. "I like to keep my surroundings clean. I feel very depressed if I'm surrounded by dirt. Much like how it feels when I see River's cabin on the ship."

"Simon!" River cried indignantly.

"Harry," Mal warned this time. "Do _you _remember our talk before we departed?"

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled. "But for the record I didn't have any problem or issues with River until today."

"That's because you won't teach me," she snapped. "Selfish goat," she added under her breath.

"Oh for the love of god," Mal cried, interrupting Harry's retort. "Will you just give it a rest! River if Harry can teach you I'll make sure he does. Is that okay sweetheart?"

"I wouldn't even if I could," Harry muttered under his breath.

River heard that and glared at Harry angrily. Why couldn't he understand how painful it was being able to hear a hundred other thoughts apart from your own!

"Do you want any of us to come with you when you go meet Fanty and Mingo?" asked Mal hurriedly not wanting to hear another argument.

"Not really," Harry said. "Fanty said the decision was up to me but I get the feeling they won't be very accommodating after what happened last time."

"Well you got that right. I'm sure the image of River beating up everybody has been burned into their thick skulls," Mal said snorting.

"Hmm," went Harry and then a mischievous grin grew on his face. "River, do you want to come with me?" he asked his eyes gleaming.

"What? Ohh! You're a genius Harry," Mal cackled.

"No way!" Simon protested immediately, living up to his role as the over protective brother.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Kaylee asked worriedly.

"If you want to spend time with River alone you just need to say the words you know," Inara said slyly. "No need to go through all this trouble."

"That's not it!" Harry denied while Kaylee and Mal started laughing at Harry's annoyed face and River's frown.

"She's not going and that's final," Simon said putting his foot down.

Mal ignored him and turned to River. "Do you want to go? Can you control yourself from whooping ass?"

"I thought you had a problem with River why do you want to take her with you?" Simon asked scowling.

"I don't have a problem with her doc," Harry said rolling his eyes. "It's she who has the problem and I can put our differences aside if it means putting some fear into those twins. I will mean I get a good deal when I leave."

"What's in it for me?" River asked.

Harry gaped. "Err captain?" he said turning to Mal.

"River you're going with him, that's an order," he said lamely.

River pouted. "That's not fair!" both she and Simon said together.

"Put on your boots little one," Mal said cheerfully. "I have a feeling lady luck is on our side today."

River grumbled at the unfairness of it all.

"Captain," Simon began but Mal just raised a finger. "Don't want to hear it," he said firmly.

"So when do we leave?" he asked Harry instead.

"Give me a minute," Harry replied and entered a code into his security unit. A painting behind the bar swung open.

"Cool!" Kaylee gushed excitedly. "A hidden safe!"

Harry walked over and entered another code in the screen beside the safe and the safe popped open.

All of them couldn't help but drop their mouths open at the contents of the safe.

It was filled to the brim with credits. And they weren't low value credits either. Harry handed over two hundred to Mal. "For the job," he said and Mal just accepted it dumbly.

"That's a lotta money," Kaylee commented faintly and Inara nodded politely. "Something you're not telling us Harry?" Inara asked.

"Huh?" Harry said not really paying attention to them. He was busy removing more money. He needed to pay the twins, have enough money for a buy in if they got down to playing a game and then he knew he would have to pay them some more if they were going to help him get to Sihnon and that wasn't going to be cheap.

"I know it's not much," he said misunderstanding their shock. "But I got a lot more in the bank. Of course it's not under my real name but Fanty and Mingo helped me get the fake Id's required to open an account there and let me tell you it's not easy."

"A lot more?" Mal said in disbelief.

"Oh yeah," Harry said. "I even got a nice flat down at the capital but the people there are too posh for me. I like this city better even though the crime rates are through the roof."

The rest of them just looked on as Harry filled a small bag with credits and once he was satisfied he zipped up the bag and shut the safe before going to his bedroom.

Simon and Mal exchanged incredulous looks.

Harry came out with another bag and handed it to Mal.

"What's this?"

"Clothes and stuff," Harry said. "I don't want to get stuck on the ship without any belongings again."

Mal nodded. His mind still hadn't processed the sight of all that money.

"Well I'm ready," Harry huffed taking a seat on the bar stool. "Am I going alone or does anyone want to come along?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"So where are we going?" River asked sticking close to Harry. Her mind was picking up so many thoughts and conversations as they pushed through the crowd that it was making her very nauseous.

"A pub called the Royal Shed," Harry said. "Also, I've been thinking."

"Congratulations," River deadpanned.

Harry smacked her head eliciting a gasp from her.

"For reasons that are my own, I simply can't teach you how to shield your mind." River opened her mouth to protest but Harry continued not letting her get a word in. "But after our lovely argument I've been thinking of a way to help you deal with it."

River shut her mouth and paid attention.

"You said being in my presence is helpful right?"

She nodded vigorously. "That's why I'm sticking to you," she said.

"Well then I want you to focus on my mind and my mind alone."

"Won't that put pressure on your shields?" she asked.

"I've been getting better at it so I can hold your probes off easily," he replied ducking under a particularly long banner depicting an image of a Chinese dragon. "Why I'm telling you to do so is so that you can understand how it feels and try to apply that feeling to yourself."

River's eyes widened in comprehension and she smiled broadly. "I knew you could help me," she said happily.

"This is not help; it's just a long shot and a way for me to get you off my back."

"Sure, sure," she patronized, "Oh look, ice planets!"

"I hate those things," Harry mumbled as River dragged him along. "And we have a meeting in half an hour you know."

Harry bought two and the two pair spent the next fifteen minutes trying to eat the ice planet.

"Why do you even want that if you can't eat it?" Harry asked as he struggled to eat own.

"It's a challenge," River muttered. "This is the most problematic food I've ever had."

"You look like a donkey tried to eat a carrot dangling in front of it," snorted Harry when River almost fell over tried to attack her ice planet.

"Screw this," Harry grumbled and held the other end of the ice planet with his left hand not caring if it was messy.

"You can't do that!" River said aghast. "It's against the rules!"

"There are rules to eat this thing?" Harry said, bemused.

"You start from the bottom, you gorram idiots," said a man who was looking thoroughly amused by their antics. "If you lick it from the side it will keep getting away."

Harry and River stared at each other embarrassed while the man just snorted and walked away.

"And Simon says you're a genius," he said chuckling. He didn't bother doing as the man had said. His hands were already messy and he dug into the ice cream with relish.

"Like you're any better," River shot back. "You're eating yours like an uncivilized ape."

"Apes weren't civilized to begin with little genius. That's why they were called apes."

"Then you can imagine how uncouth you're being if I have to call you an uncivilized ape," River said. Her planet was now a crescent moon and Harry was done with his and was now licking his hands clean.

"Finish your planet fast," he said. "Now remember, when Fanty and Mingo freak out, you just smile and say you're Mal's representative alright?"

River nodded.

"And if they ask you to join them for a game of cards you agree and use your reading ability to win get it?"

River nodded again.

"And don't destroy any bars this time," he added.

River rolled her eyes.

"And don't make it obvious that you're reading their minds if we do play a round."

River looked at him exasperated.

"We're here," Harry announced and River felt like thanking the lord.

The décor was similar to the maidenhead thought River, although the place was smaller, nosier and shadier.

The bar was just a small room crammed up with tables and chairs all filled with ugly looking men and women who were drinking and gambling their money away. Harry led her to one side of the bar into another room which was behind a curtain.

There were just three tables there and Fanty and Mingo were seated in the middle one.

"Harry," they said enthusiastically but their happy expressions changed to horror when they saw who was accompanying him.

They immediately backed away from the table until their backs hit the wall.

"What's _she_ doing here," Mingo asked fearfully.

"Oh relax you big babies," Harry said laughing out loud.

"I'm here as Captain Mal's representative," she intoned emotionlessly and then took a seat. "Will you not join us?"

Harry felt like exploding with laughter when he saw River's act. It was bloody hilarious!

Slowly the twins inched closer and sat opposite Harry and River while eying the reader cautiously.

"Is this your idea of a joke Harry?" Fanty hissed noticing Harry's not so concealed grin.

Harry nodded happily. "The look on your faces," he choked out.

"Do you even know what this devil woman did last time?" Mingo burst out.

"Oh yeah," Harry said. "And you can relax you idiots. She's as harmless as an unmanned tank."

Fanty's eyes widened at the description.

"Are you sure she won't go bat-crap crazy?" Mingo asked cautiously, his posture indicating he was ready to run at the slightest sign of violence.

Harry forced his laughter down and looked at them seriously, "She won't," he said calmly. "Last time was an exception."

"Shall we get down to business?" River asked in her monotonous voice and the twins jumped.

"Will you relax!" Harry said exasperatedly. "Do you really think I would have brought someone along who would do you any harm? You guys are my favorite crime lords in the verse!"

The two finally let the tension out of their bodies, although they kept glancing at River warily.

"Did you pay 'Captain I love trouble'?" Fanty asked, his lips curling in disdain at the thought of Mal.

"Of course," Harry said. He then opened his bag and removed six hundred credits and placed it on the table."

"Five for the information and one for freaking you out," he said grinning.

"What is it that you expect to find on Sihnon?" Mingo asked. The two couldn't figure out what it was that Harry was searching for and the list of things that Harry had given them made no sense at all.

"Something," Harry replied cryptically. "Did you find anything else on my list?"

"Nothing," Fanty said seriously. "And even these electronic failures as you called it were just freak accidents and even though tech on core planets rarely ever fail, things like this do happen."

"But it was a failure of multiple devices at the same time right?" Harry stressed. "They just went kaput out of the blue right?"

"Yes and in the history of Sihnon it has happened about a dozen of times although the last time it happened was eleven years ago."

Mingo nodded, "Whatever it is you're looking for might not even be there anymore."

Harry frowned, "It is a long shot but it's a start," he said.

"If you told us what exactly you hope to find we could be of more help," said Fanty.

"I can't," Harry replied heavily. "This is something very personal to me and I know it does not make a drop of sense to you but it does to me."

The twins sighed.

"Can you get me to Sihnon?"

"Well landing on Sihnon is restricted," Fanty began. "So going on Mal's excuse of a ship is out of the question," Mingo said.

"But what we can do is get you on a transport from Ariel to Sihnon. You'll have to travel with your Alliance Id because they do a whole background check on you before they even let you board the flight."

"Well I already have an alias to go by," Harry said thoughtfully, "Do I need a reason too?"

"Of course, we thought about it and we figured you could travel as a trader looking for a new job."

"Sounds reasonable," Harry said.

"But the Alliance is very suspicious of people who travel alone. They know Id's can be faked and we thought it would make more sense if a married couple decided to visit Sihnon on their honeymoon or something. It's so common that they wouldn't give it a second thought."

Harry froze as the implications of that statement became clear.

"Are you serious?" he exclaimed.

"Very," they said together. "Sihnon is not a place you can go to lightly and mostly its married couples who want to move to the core and settle there looking for spiritual enlightenment and what not."

"Why can't I go alone?!"

"You can," Fanty said shrugging, "But they'd keep an eye on you for a while and you already have a bounty on your head so it'd be wise to stay off their radar all together."

"It's like Fanty said. Smugglers sneak into Sihnon all the time but only about thirty percent of them get out without getting caught. Security on that planet is something else."

"We got a whole background story ready if you decide to go, both alone and married," Fanty said. "And you don't need to look so freaked; you're not really going to have to get married. It's just on paper."

"Well who am I going to marry?" Harry protested. "I can't just go on the streets and say, hey anyone willing to marry me on paper to get to Sihnon!"

The twin's sniggered and even River was smiling.

"We thought you could ask one of your new crew mates," Mingo said. "The mechanic or even this one," he said gesturing towards River.

"And you do have a companion on board too right?" he added. "You could go along with her onto the planet but then you'll have to avoid all sorts of security checks although companions are not allowed to take passengers along with them are they?"

"They're not," River confirmed. "Inara would get into trouble."

Harry glared at River.

"So what's it going to be?" Fanty asked. "Alone or are we going to have a stag night?"

"Ha ha, very funny."

The twins just smiled innocently.

"This is revenge isn't it?" Harry sighed. "Revenge for freaking you out."

"Of course not," Fanty said affronted. "We don't mix personal feelings with the business. It would be bad for business!" Mingo nodded in agreement.

Harry sighed again. "I'm going to have to think about this and see if there's another way."

"There are many ways but this is the safest," Mingo said. "But if you do make a choice we'll be at warehouse 13. We have some other business to conduct so if you don't mind."

Harry grumbled under his breath. "Give me a few hours and I'll be there." He stood up and shook their hands. "Thanks for your help," he said. "I really appreciate it."

"Pay us well and we'll be your best friends," Fanty said cheerily. "And do bring your wife along if you choose the safer route. We're going to need to make an Id for her too."

"And create a whole new past for her," Mingo added.

"Hold on a minute," Fanty said suddenly. He had received a message on his com pad.

Mingo read it and his face turned contemplative. "Harry, do you mind asking your friend to wait outside for a bit," he said.

"Why?" Harry asked frowning.

"Need to discuss some business with you," he said.

Harry glanced at River and she just nodded and stepped out back into the pub.

The three sat down again. "What is it?"

"If you do decide to go to Sihnon, we would like you to acquire some goods for us," Fanty said.

Harry knew immediately what the goods were going to be, "Silk?"

Fanty nodded. "Our mutual friends there have managed to misplace some top grade silk and we need someone to get it off the planet."

"That's going to be difficult," Harry said instantly. "You know how trade is monitored there don't you."

"You have a companion on board," Mingo said.

"I thought I couldn't travel with her," Harry said confused.

"But her shuttle will never be checked for illegal goods," Fanty said. "It will be scanned for illegal immigrants but the material contents of her shuttle will never be checked."

"Social status of a companion and all that," Mingo said.

"Oh I don't know," Harry said dubiously. "I doubt if she'll agree to this."

"We're not saying you have to take the job but do talk to Mal about it and decide. We're willing to pay well if you can pull this job off."

"And we know that Mal has found it very hard to find a job after Miranda and I'm sure he'll appreciate the offer," Fanty said. "Maybe this might ease the nerves of the people who'd like to hire him."

Harry was silent for a moment as he mulled over their offer. "I'll talk to the captain about it," he said finally.

"If he does agree tell him to send us a wave on this number," he said handing over Harry a piece of paper.

"Or he could come to the warehouse and we can talk about the more delicate details and payment," Mingo said.

"Alright then," Harry said standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder.

Suddenly there was a loud crash followed by a few screams.

Fanty and Mingo looked panicked and Harry quickly ran out while the twins just peeked through the curtains.

River was standing just outside and a huge man thrice her size in both height and width was lying unconscious in the remains of one of the tables.

All the people around had stopped their activities and were looking at her with horror.

"He called me cute stuff and tried to grab my ass," River explained helpfully.

Harry just dropped his head into his palm.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Mr. and Mrs. Williams**

"So let me get this straight. You want to go to Sihnon."

"That's right," Harry said.

"Fanty and Mingo will be supplying you with the necessary documents."

"Uh-huh."

"But they feel that if you pretend to go there as a newlywed then the Alliance wouldn't bother you as much as if you went alone."

"Yup."

"You also want one of my crew, who belong to the female category of our species, to be your spouse?"

"Precisely."

"And since you want to go the core, Fanty and Mingo want to give us a job that involves smuggling goods out of a core planet which is known for its strict laws."

"Spot on."

"And since Inara is a companion, smuggling the goods on her shuttle is an option?"

"Exactly."

Mal turned to the rest of the crew who were observing the conversation with varying degrees of amusement.

"And you all think this is a good idea?"

"How much is the payoff?" Zoe asked.

Harry shrugged. "They didn't say but I'm sure it will be a substantial amount."

"This is a terrible plan and a job that we shouldn't even be considering!" Mal burst out. "Inara, would you want to be part of this?"

Inara shook her head, "I'm not comfortable travelling with illegal goods," she said apologetically. "But the plan does have merit. The Alliance would never search the vessel of a companion."

"Maybe that's true, but we're talking about smuggling goods from a core planet and we have three fugitives on our ship. We shouldn't be thinking about taking this job," he repeated resolutely.

"No one's saying you got to take the job captain," Harry said patiently. "All I asked was would you _want_ to take the job."

"But you do want to go to Sihnon don't you?"

"Yes," Harry admitted. "And if Fanty and Mingo say going as a married couple is the safest way to go then I think that would be the way to go for me."

"So you're asking permission to take one of my crew along for a suicide mission?" he asked scathingly.

"I'm asking for your help," Harry snapped. "If you got a better idea then please, share."

"This is the first job we've got in a while Cap'n," Jayne said. "Do you really think we should let it go without at least discussing it?"

"We are discussing it," Mal bit back. "And I am of the opinion it's a bad idea."

"Neither Kaylee nor River are going to parade around as your wife," Simon added, shuddering at the thought of his sister or girlfriend being called Mrs. Potter; even if it were not real.

"Well who else can I ask!" Harry said getting agitated. "Inara is out of the question because she's a companion; Zoe is out too because of her history as a Browncoat and more importantly she's way older than me. Kaylee and River are the only options I have!"

"I'm sorry Harry," Kaylee said regretfully, "But the idea going to a planet like Sihnon just scares the crap out of me. I don't think I'd be able to hold my nerves."

Harry turned towards River feeling a little disappointed. He didn't blame Kaylee for being afraid.

"She's not going so don't even think about it," Simon said sharply.

"I wouldn't mind," River said, stunning her brother.

"River!" cried Simon aghast.

"You both have bounties on your head if you remember," Inara reminded. "The two of you travelling together will definitely alert the Alliance."

"We're not going to travel as Harry and River obviously," Harry said, looking at River gratefully. "We'll be disguised."

"Disguised how?" Simon spat.

Harry removed his wallet and pulled out his alliance Id and handed it to Mal.

He looked different in the picture. His hair wasn't the nest it usually was but was absolutely flat and hung loosely just above his eyes while a bit spilled over his ears. It was of a light brownish color and his eyes were brown too. Just these differences made him look like a completely different person.

"You look like an idiot," Jayne commented, guffawing.

"Gregory Williams?" Mal said, reading his fake name out loud.

There was more giggling at that.

"It's my alias," Harry said embarrassed. "It's supposed to indicate that this person is definitely not Harry Potter."

"What sort of disguise will I get?" River asked interestedly.

"What color would you like your hair to be?"

"Purple," she said immediately. "I've always imagined my hair purple or even lavender or bleach blonde." River was getting excited as she imagined different hair colors that she would like to have.

"You can stop imagining," Simon scoffed. "You're not going, it's too dangerous."

"Oh?" River said testily. "And you're just going to control the rest of my life are you?"

There was a sharp intake of breath in the room. This was the first time River had defied Simon's instructions this curtly and even Simon was a little surprised.

"Until we get the Alliance off our backs, yes!"

River narrowed her eyes and turned to Harry with a determined look in her eyes. "I'm coming with you," she said firmly. "I can be Mrs. Williams."

Inara whispered something to Kaylee and Zoe and all three started giggling.

"River NO!" Simon shouted. "The Alliance wants you dead and you want to go to Sihnon? Are you insane?!"

"They're not going to expect me to be there now are they?" River retorted. "Plus I'm going to be disguised with lavender hair and turquoise eyes _and_ if Harry finds what he's looking for he can teach me to control my reading!"

"_River_," Simon warned.

"_Simon,"_ she mocked.

"This is stupid River. Don't be so reckless! You're acting like the time mother didn't allow you to go for Denise's birthday party!"

"So you want me to suffer forever is that it?" River said, her voice rising. You want me to remain helpless little River forever?!"

"No," Simon protested. "But I do want you to be safe forever! If Harry finds whatever _Fei Hua_ he's looking for, he can get it back and _then teach_ you."

"It's dangerous for him to go alone, don't you get that!" she yelled. "And he's helping me so I want to help him."

"He's helping you how? Have you forgotten that big fight that you just had with him earlier today?!"

"Focusing on his mind makes me think clearer," she snapped. "He told me to try it out and it helps a little but it HELPS! That's more than anything you've been able to do since I escaped!" She felt bad as soon as she said that.

"It does?" Harry asked surprised.

He quickly sealed his lips when the siblings directed their ire towards him.

"This is all your fault," Simon accused, glaring at Harry.

"My…!" Harry began hotly but he was cut off by River.

"Don't blame him dear brother, this is between you and me," she snarled. "Does any one of you have a problem with me going?"

Everyone looked a bit startled at their sudden involvement for they were simply watching the two argue with fascination. This was a new River they were seeing and they liked it.

"Err, it is risky, River," Mal said carefully. "The Alliance is still after you."

"If they wanted us dead they would have done it already. They wanted to shut me up because of what I knew about Miranda but now the entire verse knows so there's no point in actively hunting me anymore. If they were sore about it they would have sent a whole fleet after all of us and not just me," she said.

"But there is still a bounty on your head, River," Kaylee said worriedly, "And now there's one on Harry too."

"It's a bounty, which means the Alliance does not want to be directly involved," she said. "I want to go!"

"Stop being such a brat River," Simon scolded. "You're still a minor and I make your decisions until you're of age," he said, bringing out his trump card. He sounded and felt like he just won the argument.

"Simon, River is eighteen now," Zoe said sympathetically. "She's no longer a minor."

River's face lit up triumphantly and Simon looked crushed.

"Mal, you're the captain of this boat and we're part of your crew," Simon said desperately, "You get to make the final call."

"River's free to make her choices doc," he said. "But if you want my opinion I'll say it again, it's a bad idea."

"River, please don't do this," Simon begged.

Harry felt guilty for making the siblings fight and he knew what Simon had to sacrifice to help River escape from the Alliance. "Listen," he said, "I'll go alone. You don't need to put yourself at risk because of me."

"Why don't you understand! Being in Harry's presence lessens the voices in my head," she said, her eyes tearing up. "He told me to focus on his mind and concentrate on reading his mind and his mind alone. It's not much but it helps!"

River, don't cry," Simon said feeling terrible. "We'll change your meds, try even more treatments!"

"They don't help Simon," she cried. "But he does!"

"What about the job," Jayne asked irritably having had enough of this emotional _tzao gao._"Let's focus on that instead of this _fei hua_."

"Jayne!" Inara gasped, appalled. "Don't you have any sense of empathy?"

"All I know is we're in this boat to make a living. And that works best when we have a job," he said uncaringly. "Now if little miss crazy wants to go with wizardo to Sihnon, I could care less. But what I do care about is money which we seem to be having a severe shortage of."

Simon was looking at Jayne with undisguised hatred but Kaylee and Zoe did feel that Jayne had a point, albeit a small one.

"This is the first job that has been offered to us in a while captain," Zoe said reasonably. "Now I know it involves smuggling goods of Sihnon but we have done jobs similar to this in the past."

"That was before we went and pissed off the Alliance Zoe," Mal said tiredly.

"Let's have a chat with Fanty and Mingo and if things turn out to be too dangerous we'll turn it down," Zoe said calmly, "What do you say Jayne."

"Fine by me," he grunted. "All I wanted to say was we shouldn't shoot down job opportunities, especially ones that involve a huge pay off."

"But that means Harry and River will be our contacts on the ground," Mal said. "Are we okay with that? And can you _handle_ that?" Mal asked Harry.

"I don't have a problem captain," Harry said. "But," he hesitated, "Do you consider me part of your crew?"

"Of course!" Kaylee said immediately. "Don't we?"

"Haven't we gone through this already?" Zoe asked bemused.

"Mal?" Inara prompted with a slight edge to her voice.

"We've been through quite a lot together Harry," Mal said. "Not to consider you as part of my crew would be quite absurd at this point to be honest."

A smile grew on Harry's face.

"So yes, you are part of Serenity and if you need help you got it, but the problem we face is standing right beside you."

"Do you want to take River with you?" he asked curiously. "I mean you two haven't exactly been best of pals since your time on my boat."

Harry shrugged. "If she can stop being bitchy towards me then I got no problem."

Harry dodged the boot that almost crushed his toes.

"River?" Mal asked amused.

"I just wanted him to help me and he is," she said. "So I'm going."

"River," Simon protested again.

"Simon, I think you have to let go at some point of time," Inara said compassionately. "You can't keep sheltering her for the rest of your and her life."

"But…"

"Inara's right," Mal interrupted. "And I'm pretty sure Harry can take care of her if the push comes to shove."

"He did take out an entire squad of soldiers on both Haven and Mr Universe's moon," Zoe added.

"And River took out more than a dozen Reavers with a _sword_," Kaylee said, putting in her two cents.

"So they're not exactly helpless doc," Mal said.

"But she's my sister," Simon said in a small voice.

"I'll be fine Simon," River said, gently wrapping her arms around him. "You don't have to take care of me all the time. I'll be fine."

Simon's eyes were glistening.

"I promise to keep her safe doc," Harry said quietly.

Simon was quiet for a while and then he looked up with a dangerous look in his eye. "If a single hair on her head is damaged I swear I will hunt you down and kill you myself," Simon growled. "You got that?"

"Crystal."

"Now can we go and meet up with those moronic twins?" Jayne asked standing up and stretching his arms. "I've had enough of these sappy moments."

"It's going to be me, Zoe, Harry and River," Mal said. "The rest of you stay on the ship and make sure she's ready to fly when we get back."

"Does this mean we're taking the job!" Jayne asked excitedly.

"No, but it does mean we're going to get Harry to Sihnon," he replied.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Why can't it be lavender?" River asked, annoyed. All her color choices were being shot down.

"Because it stands out," George explained patiently. George was the forger for Fanty and Mingo's illegal businesses. He was the one who created Harry's Alliance Id. Right now they were in one of twins warehouses where the exchange of cargo usually took place. One corner of the warehouse had been turned into a studio of sorts with a large mirror, a number of bright studio lights and large table which had over a dozen cameras, forging equipment, computers, and loads of blank Id's on it. The rest of the warehouse was filled to the top with hundreds of crates which contained all sorts of contrabands and illegal goods.

"Williams, can you the message through her thick skull?"

"Don't call me that," Harry groaned.

George looked confused. "But that's what it says on your Id," he said. "Do you mean to tell me that is not your name!"

"You're a funny guy George," Harry deadpanned. "Hysterical."

"You better get used to it Potter," he said shaking his head ruefully. "It will help you stay in character."

"This is my character," Harry said. "All that's changed is my identity."

George just clucked his tongue and turned back to River. "How about dirty blonde and we'll highlight the tips?" he told her. "It's not what I'd call going incognito but it's not uncommon for women from the core to have some funky hair colors."

"If it's not uncommon then what's wrong with lavender?" River pointed out.

"Because you _are_attempting to go incognito _kao_! Do you even know how bright lavender will look?"

Harry grinned and River just rolled her eyes. He remembered how he had behaved with George but fortunately for him Harry wasn't as stubborn as River.

"Short hair would suit her too, no?" Antonio said. He was the hair stylist and the one who was going to work on River's hair. Fanty and Mingo liked to pretend they were classy by hiring all sorts of fashion experts. They even had a private tailor and designer. Harry felt it was ridiculous but he never said that to the twins. Their vanity was legendary.

River looked thoughtful. "Hmm… That is a good idea," she said intrigued. "Short blonde hair, maybe not bleach blonde but a little dirty, with lavender highlights. What do you think hubby?"

"Don't call me that," Harry said annoyed.

"Why not?" River asked confused. "It will help us stay in character."

George burst out laughing. "Oh I like this one already."

"This is ridiculous," Harry said scowling. "I'm going to see what Mal and your bosses are up to while you decide on how you want to disfigure her hair."

"I'll be waiting hubby!" River shouted and Harry hurried towards the closed room at the other end of the warehouse ignoring the raucous laughter behind him.

"Wasn't she supposed to be the sullen sulky psycho one?" Harry grumbled grouchily.

Inside the makeshift office in the warehouse the twins and Mal were concluding business.

"So we have a deal?"

Mal stuck his hand out and shook both their hands. "I hope you understand how dangerous this job could get," he said warily.

"You accepted the job Mal," Fanty said indifferently. "Now we've done our bit and given you all the help we could. It's just up to you to do your part and not make a mess of things."

"And we're paying you more than we usually would and that's only because Harry's involved in this too and we trust him," Mingo added.

"I've never seen or heard about you two being this friendly with anyone," Zoe commented.

"Harry saved us from a particularly dangerous situation one time so we owe him for that. And he's been a good business partner in a few of our dealings."

Mal raised his eyebrows, "Seriously?"

"With him on your side I doubt even _you_ could screw this up," Mingo said snidely.

"I'm touched by the amount of faith you have in us," Mal said derisively. "Let's get going Zoe, staying in the presence of these two is making me queasy."

"Oh the feeling is mutual _Malcolm_," Fanty retorted.

"Would it kill you guys to get along?" Harry said, hearing the end bit of the conversation as he walked in. "You're worse than a couple of five year olds."

"Not as bad as you and River though," Zoe said smiling.

Harry rolled his eyes. "So did you make a decision?" he asked Mal.

"We're doing it," said the captain.

"Really?!" Harry exclaimed. "How come?"

"They're paying us five thousand credits for this job," Mal said, his eyes gleaming. "And after a good long discussion we have a way of getting the goods off the planet."

Harry looked impressed.

"And you're an integral part of it," Zoe added.

"How about that," Harry said humorously.

"We'll fill you in when we're back on the ship," Mal said, responding to Harry's inquiring look.

"How's it coming with the devil's child?" Fanty asked.

"She's busy deciding what kind of hairdo she wants," Harry said grimacing. "If I'd known there was actually something girly about her under all that armor I could have disregarded this plan immediately!"

"Women," Mal scoffed.

"I bet Inara and Kaylee would love to hear you right now," Zoe said glowering at the two.

"What are they going to do, yell at us?" Harry taunted but then gulped and quickly hid behind Mal after seeing Zoe place her hands on her shotgun.

"Zoe," Mal said warily. "We need him in one piece."

"Oh don't worry sir," Zoe replied smartly. "I'm just going to let the girls deal with him _and_you."

"What did I do?!" Mal objected.

"I hate to break up this little feminine dispute, but we have work to do," Mingo said dryly.

When the party of four reached the makeover section of the warehouse all of them gaped at the new River. Her hair was shorter than before. It now fell a few inches below her shoulders and all the curls she had, had been ironed out. It was no longer brown but blonde with the tips highlighted with a smatter of lavender and hot pink. Instead of having a partition in the center she now had a fringe which was swept to one side. Her eyes, which were previously brown, were now light blue.

"Meet Mrs. Williams," Antonio said, taking a bow.

River looked thrilled with her new look and she twirled and curtsied. She had even changed out of her usual style of dressing and now wore a dark blue jean with a purple tee shirt. Her boots were the only thing that remained from her old outfit and all in all she looked amazingly different.

"Wow, you look great, River!" Zoe complimented.

"Yea, exactly," Mal said dumbfounded.

Harry on the other hand was looking terribly confused. He glanced at his watch and then back at River and Antonio.

"How long was I gone?" he asked uncertainly.

"I work fast boy," Antonio said proudly.

"But you even changed her hair color and she changed her clothes too!" Harry said incredulously and looked around for what she usually wore. "I was gone, what twenty minutes?"

"Five minutes of cutting hair, few minutes for coloring and as for clothes, we're in a warehouse filled with all sorts of items boy."

"Aren't you going to comment on her new look, Harry?" Zoe said with steel lacing her voice.

"Oh yeah, you look amazing River," he said sincerely. Words simply failed him every time he looked at this new River. He wanted to say she looked smoking hot but he knew that would result in an endless torrent of jokes directed at him.

"Men," Zoe swore under her breath but River just beamed at the compliment.

"Thanks hubby," she said cheekily.

Mal and Zoe snorted at that.

"I said don't call me that!"

"Oh shut up you spoilsport and get up here," Antonio chided. "You've got to change too."

Still smiling, River was guided to one of the stools where George took a number of photographs of her and began his work on her new Id. On the other side of the table, Antonio was busy making Harry match his photo on his Id and once he was done he handed Harry the specialized contacts.

"Press your thumb on it," Fanty said. The twins were just watching the proceedings with their hands folded and their expressions blank. This was business.

Harry did so and was surprised to feel a little shock run through him.

"These contacts cannot be removed by anyone except you and nobody will even know they're there," Mingo explained. "They are absorbed into your eye changing its color and if you want to remove it just press your thumb to your eye for about three seconds and they'll pop right out."

"Wow. That's some technology," he said thoroughly impressed.

"We got a shipment of these from a research facility on Bellerophon," Fanty said with a sigh. "Gotta love those scientists," Mingo added.

"That _is_ cool," Mal agreed.

"Why would they be inventing such pointless items?" Zoe asked bewildered.

"It is useful," Fanty countered, pointing at Harry who had put the lenses in place and was now blinking rapidly as the lenses were absorbed into his eyes changing them from green to brown.

"How do you do Mr. Williams?" Mingo said smirking.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me that," he grumbled.

"Better get used to it," Fanty said. "It's going to be your name for a while now."

"All done," George announced, heaving a sigh. "Now comes the hardest part."

"This was the easy part?" Mal asked in disbelief.

"Now the Id has to be uploaded into the Alliance mainframe," River explained. "A history of check in's at various places has to be created to give the Id the authenticity it requires. Also a detailed medical background of the person will have to be uploaded to the Hospital where I was allegedly born and I also need to have a current residence _and_ the place where I got the Id from and the officer who approved of it needs to be..."

"I get it!" Mal said loudly, stopping River's very educational lecture.

"She's a smart one when she's not violent," Fanty remarked.

"I'm not violent," River said innocently. "I'm very docile."

"Tell that to the guy whose ribs you broke," said Mingo. He was still very wary of this girl who could do so much damage with a single kick.

River smiled nastily. "He deserved it."

"So, are we done here?" Mal asked. He was tired of being in the same room as the twins.

"George?"

"We're done," he said. "The hair color will last you for a good three weeks and the compound we used will cover any root growth too. Make sure you keep your contacts on all at times and more importantly," he handed both the teens a bunch of papers.

"Your cover story," he said solemnly. "Read it, memorize it and never forget it."

"Thanks George," Harry said appreciatively.

"Good luck," Antonio said, handing River her Id and the pair departed, presumably to finish the other part of the work on River's Id. River examined her picture on it and saw that her hair was shorter in the image and there were no highlights or anything. Her hair was simply blonde.

"How long will it take to upload the data and bury it in the system?" Harry asked.

"A couple of days," Mingo said. "Your transport leaves from Ariel in five days at five in the evening, Ariel time."

"Anything else?"

"Payment," Fanty said impassively.

"Right," Harry muttered. "Same rates as before?"

"Plus an additional three hundred for the fancy hairdo and the clothes."

"We're going to need more of those," Harry said. "Mind if she picks out a few from here?" he asked.

"Go right ahead," Fanty said, gesturing towards a few crates behind him and Zoe and River hurried towards them. "But that will make it four hundred credits."

"So that's a total of nineteen hundred credits," mumbled Harry. He opened his bag and began to count.

Beside him Mal looked shocked. "Nineteen hundred credits for this!"

"That's our friend rates Mal," Fanty sneered. "So keep your mouth shut or else a bug named intelligence might fly in."

"Honestly Harry, I have no idea what you see in these characters?" Mingo commented.

"Watch it," Harry barked. "You can insult them when I'm not around but please don't do that in front of me. They're my friends regardless of how you feel about them," he said and handed over the nineteen hundred.

"We took two suitcases too," Zoe said. "One for each of you," she told Harry.

"Consider them complimentary," Fanty said courteously.

"Pleasure doing business with you Harry," Mingo said smiling.

"And you," Fanty said, looking at Mal coldly. "Don't complicate things unnecessarily."

"I love you too," Mal mocked.

"Good luck," they said and quietly slunk out of sight.

"Let's get going hubby," River said cheerfully.

"For the love of god!" Harry snapped turning red as Zoe and Mal burst out laughing.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"God I love these," Kaylee moaned as she suckled on a strawberry. "The taste is so exquisite."

"Where did you get them?" Inara asked.

Kaylee grinned, "Snagged them from Harry's house," she said with guilty pleasure.

"Now if we ever find ourselves short of money all we have to do is rob Harry's house," Inara said chuckling. "Or send him to a gambling den and tell him to work his magic."

"It's quite shocking though. We left him for a few months and now he's so gorram rich!"

"And he seems to think it's not much," Inara snorted.

"How loaded is he?" Jayne asked coming into the galley and joining the two ladies on the couch.

"He had a vault which was overflowing with credits," Kaylee said sighing. "Man I wish I were a witch. The possibilities would be endless!"

"You want to be a freak?" Jayne scoffed, popping a strawberry in his mouth.

"Don't call him that," Inara reprimanded. "He's just as normal as you or I but with a few special skills."

"He calls himself a wizard," Jayne said rolling his eyes. "Have you ever heard of _that_ before?"

"Well according to him there are many more like him," Kaylee said. "I do hope he finds his friends though. Must be such a terrible feeling; waking up and realizing the world you knew is gone," she said sadly.

"RIVER!"

All three jumped when Simon's shriek resonated through the ship.

"Looks like they're back," Kaylee giggled and they quickly hurried to the cargo bay to see what made her boyfriend shriek like a little girl.

"Oh my," Inara whispered, stunned.

"Who's that hottie?" Jayne asked, checking out the woman beside Zoe. "Wait, is that River?!"

_"Shun-sheng duh gao-wahn!_ River!" Kaylee gasped.

"What have you done to her?" Simon screamed.

"Who's River?" River asked, looking at Simon in strangely. "My name is Emily, Emily Williams."

Simon was close to having a nervous breakdown.

"Meet Mrs. Williams," Mal said chuckling and patting Simon on the back comfortingly. "Now you can rant and rave all you want or compliment River on her stunning new looks but first let's get off this rock."

"Harry, shut the cargo bay. Zoe, fire this baby up and take us back into the air," Mal said cheerily. Simon on the other hand just stared at River for a few seconds before storming back to his infirmary. A glimmer of annoyance passed through River's eyes but it passed before anyone could notice.

"Kaylee, are we shiny?" Mal asked his mechanic.

"We're good to go cap'n," Kaylee said, still reeling from the shock of seeing the new River.

"Did we take the job?" Jayne asked.

Mal smiled. "Go polish your weapons and count the grenades," he said. "Hopefully we won't need them but it's better to be on the safe side."

"You got it," Jayne growled happily. He took another glance at River and said, "I'll be in my bunk."

"River you look _so_ different!" Kaylee squealed.

"You look beautiful River," said Inara warmly.

"Thanks," giggled River, completely out of character. She was taking her new role very seriously.

"Well looks like I've been forgotten," Harry grumbled, bringing their attention to him.

"You look nice too Harry," Kaylee said rolling her eyes.

"What Kaylee was trying to say is you pale in comparison to this stunner over here," Inara said.

"Oh stop," River said blushing, "You're just exaggerating now."

"Emily huh, interesting choice for your name," Kaylee said waggling her eyebrows. "Any interesting story behind it?"

"My hubby chose it for me," River explained.

"Hubby!" Inara choked and Kaylee burst out laughing.

Harry just mumbled incoherently under his breath and quickly went up the stairs to the galley. He had things to discuss with Mal and he couldn't take any more of this hubby nonsense.

"He secretly loves me calling him that," River said conspiratorially.

"I can't believe this," Kaylee exclaimed. "You change your hair style and it's like a whole new person has been injected into you!"

But then her smile changed to a frown.

"You didn't take any drugs did you?"

River rolled her eyes. "Of course not. I'm just happy that's all," she said.

"That's wonderful River," said a broadly smiling Inara, "Now come along. Let's get you out of these simple clothes and get you something more befitting of a lady."

Kaylee nodded solemnly, "Your husband is rich and you're going to have to act like it."

"I wish I were his wife now," she added wistfully.

"Shush!" River whispered, "Don't let Simon hear you say that and he's my hubby so claws off!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Are you certain this will work?" Harry asked doubtfully as Mal explained the plan to him and Jayne.

"I don't trust Fanty and Mingo regardless of their relationship with you. They might be serious businessmen but the soldier in me is just waiting for them to throw me to the dogs," Mal said.

"And this job involves hoodwinking the Alliance and if they sold us out to the feds then they stand to gain more than they could lose," Zoe said.

"I don't doubt your instincts just the plan," Harry said wryly.

"This plan rests wholly on your shoulder," Mal said seriously. "But if you feel you're not up to it then we won't go through with it. But it's the only alternative we got."

Harry sighed and went over the details again and again.

"I'm going to need River's help if I have to pull this off," he muttered.

"She seems to be looking a lot better now," Zoe said. "You think she's still volatile?"

"She's _very_volatile. I can feel her in my mind constantly and it's amazing that she can focus this well. I honestly didn't expect that just having her focus on my mind would have such an effect on her but if something was to go wrong and she becomes psycho River…." Harry trailed off uncomfortably.

"Well then you have to make sure she doesn't," Mal said forcefully.

Harry nodded hesitantly and glanced into the infirmary where Simon was sulking. "Don't tell her brother about this," he warned. "Otherwise you're going to be dealing with psycho Simon too."

"I can deal with psycho Simon _you_just worry about River, or should I say Mrs. Williams," said Mal slyly.

Harry scowled.

"Relax Harry," Zoe said smirking. "Think of this as your honeymoon."

Harry growled.

"And don't forget to consummate your marriage," Jayne added. His mind thinking lecherous thoughts.

"That is disgusting," Harry spat his temper rising. "And this is not a real marriage so I need to do no such thing!"

"You think getting into the pants of hot River is disgusting? What are you, gay?" Jayne scoffed. He turned to Zoe and Mal for support but they were just shaking their heads at his crudeness.

"We talked about this Jayne," Mal said, "Do you remember? Something about limits? Lines that we don't cross?"

"This ain't one of those times!" Jayne protested, "I'll bet you a hundred credits right now that that's what the girls are talking about with River."

Zoe's eyes widened briefly realizing what she was missing out on. "I gotta go," she mumbled and hurried towards Inara's shuttle.

Mal and Harry stared at Zoe's sudden retreat with wide eyes but Jayne just laughed.

"So consummating?"

"I surprised you even know what that word means," Harry said, rubbing his aching forehead irritably. "This bloody marriage thing is becoming more trouble than it is worth."

"Well maybe if you stopped being so anal about it, you'd actually have some fun being fake married," Mal said grinning.

"O shut up Mal," Harry retorted. "The day I enjoy the thought of marriage is the day you profess your undying love for Inara."

That shut the captain up good.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: **Just a fan. Don't own anything and certainly not making any money out of this.

**Chapter 11: Onwards to Sihnon**

"River," Simon whispered, shaking his sleeping sister. Tears stained her face and she was moaning and muttering indiscernible words which Simon was glad he couldn't understand.

"River, wake up," he said shaking her harder.

His oddly blonde haired sister snapped her panic-stricken eyes wide open, rolled out of her bed and backed into one corner of the room.

"Simon!" she gasped. "They're coming, they're coming!"

"Hush, River," he said softly hurrying to her. He tried to wrap his arms around her but she flinched and shielded herself.

"River just calm down, you're safe," he said soothingly. "There's no one here and it's just you and I. You're safe," he repeated.

Her head jerked around the room and slowly her breathing came back to normal. "It was horrible Simon," she said tearfully. "They were… they were, there were so many white coats and blue hands, forcing me to do things and… and." She trailed off sobbing.

"You're safe River," said Simon feeling his heart ache. "They won't harm you; they're never going to touch you again."

River just hugged her brother tight and continued to soak his shirt with tears.

It was a while before River finally calmed down and her sobbing and turned to sniffing. She looked at Simon with red rimmed eyes and muttered, "Thanks."

"Oh _mei mei_," he said affectionately. "You know I'll always be there for you."

River nodded, "I know," she said and then lifted the hem of his shirt and blew her nose into it.

"River!" yelled Simon in horror.

River just grinned sheepishly, "Sorry," she said sniffing.

"You did that on purpose you little brat!" he exclaimed. He looked at his now snot filled shirt and muttered, "Gross."

"You might what to change Simon," said River giggling.

"Oh just you wait," growled Simon playfully. "I'm going to get you for this." He then stood up and went back to his room to change.

By the time he got back, River was already in her bed and she was fast asleep. He was glad to see she had a smile on her face.

"How are you going to manage all alone River," he whispered.

Steeling his resolve he headed back to his room deciding that he was not going to let River go without a fight. He knew he just knew that this was a bad idea and absolutely nothing good could come of it.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Hey where did you get all that!?" exclaimed Harry.

"What do you mean?" asked Mal innocently. "These have always been here."

"Don't lie! I recognize these bottles, they're from my house!"

Inara grinned sheepishly, "They were simply calling out to us, and surely you can't blame us for that."

Kaylee nodded, her eyes twinkling merrily, "Yea, they were saying, _take us, take us_, over and over so we just gave into the pressure."

"Bullshit," snorted Harry, his initial shock fading into amusement. "When did you take them? I didn't even realize."

Mal shook his reproachfully, "Harry we're thieves!" he said earnestly. "If you caught wind of what we were doing then we wouldn't be good thieves now would we?"

"I should have known," said Harry in mock sadness and betrayal. "I should have known better than to trust Captain Mal, scourge of the rich and well off!"

"Oh stop calling yourself that!" scoffed Simon. "You're well off and not rich! And you wouldn't have even known if we hadn't told you!"

"So?" said Harry childishly, "I have more than you don't I!?"

Simon just mumbled something inaudible under his breath. He was still directing all his anger at Harry.

"Enough talking lets drink already!" said Jayne eagerly.

"Eager to have this very fine whiskey wash down your throat 'eh?" said Mal smiling. "Let's do it!"

"You sure this is wise?" Harry said. "We reach Ariel tomorrow and sporting a hangover is not what I had in mind."

"In two days you're going to be off to the one of the most dangerous planets in the verse," he replied and then paused looking thoughtful. "Well, dangerous for folk like us anyway, you included."

"Glenlivet," read Zoe aloud. "Sounds good," she announced and proceeded to crack the seal.

"Does anyone know if that's any good?" asked Harry hesitantly. Even if he had all these weird branded bottles, he had no idea what was what and how good or bad they were. He had just bought them off the twins after a rather incredible night of business.

Simon was the only one staring at them disbelief.

River who had just come in took a look at the bottle and explained. "That is a rare and vintage whiskey which was produced back on Earth. A section of Merrie was terraformed to be capable of reproducing the same kind of environment as it was on Earth. There are many such distilleries on Merrie which were dedicated to continuing the legacy of certain kinds of liqor. Of course, the atmosphere around these distilleries is artificial so it can't compare to the way it was back on Earth. But they're supposedly good nevertheless."

Simon had been nodding as River spoke but the rest were now staring at the bottle in wide eyed amazement.

"I feel kinda bad now," said Zoe, staring at the broken seal in her hand. It was like holding a piece of history.

"Booze from Earth?" asked Jayne wanting clarification.

"Ancient booze from Earth which is now centuries old," Mal corrected reverently. "I can imagine how much we could get if we sold this on the black market."

River and Simon nodded in agreement.

"Let's drink already!" Jayne burst out. Having an open bottle in front of him and being unable to drink it was making him cranky. "If little miss brainy hadn't given us a history lesson we would halfway to the bottom now!"

River huffed, "Well I'm sorry if there were too many words for you to comprehend," she sniped taking a seat next to her brother.

"Exactly," agreed Jayne, "Wait what?"

Everyone just laughed and Jayne also joined in even though he didn't get why they were laughing.

Zoe filled up everyone's glasses and then looked at River questioningly. "River?" she asked.

River just shook her head.

"It's just one glass," Inara said mildly, "You sure?"

"She's sure," said Harry quickly remembering the lecture she'd given him a few days back.

"Let your better half speak for herself Harry," reprimanded Kaylee.

"You don't want her to explain, trust me!"

"Can we please just…." began Jayne. "Alright, alright!" interrupted Zoe.

"To the success of this job," toasted Mal.

"And to Harry," added Inara, "Hope you find whatever it is you're looking for."

Seven glasses clinked together and seven empty glasses were slammed back on the table.

"Wow!" gasped Harry.

"Yea," agreed Simon. "That was _gorram_ smooth!"

Jayne grinned in delight, "Next round!"

"River, this stuff is awesome!" cried Kaylee, "You sure you don't want any!?"

"She doesn't," said Harry hurriedly seeing River ready to go into one of her tangents.

Kaylee and River gave Harry annoyed looks.

"You better be careful River," said Zoe. "This one seems like the controlling type."

Harry reddened and River snorted.

"Are you ever going to let your wife speak for herself?" scolded Inara.

"Stop picking on him," said Simon coming to Harry rescue. Truthfully he couldn't handle his little sister being referred to as a married woman. She was just a little girl for god's sake.

"Anyone for round two?" Jayne asked again. He had already filled the glasses.

**_An hour later _**

"Anyone for round….?" slurred Jayne. He tried his best to remember which round it was but it just wasn't coming. He knew the number was there in his mind but there seemed to be some static between him and the numbers. Static which was making him all sorts of funny all over.

He looked around to see who else was still remaining with them. Inara had long retired to her shuttle citing reasons of being sound of mind for her appointment when they reached Ariel. Kaylee was drooling on Simon's shoulder and the doctor himself had passed out on his chair leaning back.

His head was rolling from side to side comically but that was only because River was standing behind him and pushing it from side to side. She looked awfully pleased with herself for some reason.

It was just Mal, Zoe and Harry who were still somewhat alive and Jayne was very surprised that Harry was still awake.

"Pour, pour," chuckled Harry. "You know if I had my wand with me, I could turn water into wine?"

"Yea right," scoffed Mal. "What next? Brooms that can fly?"

"It's magic ssir," Zoe said. She kept trying to grab her glass but for some strange reasons her hand kept missing it. "Anything is possible right Harry?"

Harry nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah and I still don't know much about magic. My headmaster used to tell me the true power of magic lies in love."

Jayne choked on his drink. "Love!?"

River stopped doodling on Simon and Kaylee's face and looked up in interest.

"_Exx-actly_ the reaction I had," he said snorting.

"Honestly, love?"

"Love can make people do all sorts of crazy things," Zoe said quietly.

The mood immediately turned dark.

"Zoe," Mal began hesitantly.

"Don't sir," Zoe said sharply. "Jayne, pour us another."

Jayne happy refilled the four glasses and poured the table a fair share too.

"Aww, Jayne!"

"Got any interesting stories to share Harry?" asked Mal. "Growing up in a magic school must have been pretty thrilling."

"Did they teach you how to pull rabbits out of hats?" Zoe asked interestedly.

Harry knocked back his drink and looked at them with blood-shot eyes. "My school days huh?" he said sullenly.

Harry stared at his glass as he recalled his past. Mal, Jayne and Zoe held their breaths, waiting for Harry to say something. They could sense this was going to be quite the story and River was now sitting cross-legged on the table patiently waiting for Harry to say something.

The young wizard flicked his glass away from him and began to chuckle.

"Err, Harry?"

"Well you could say it was interesting," he said at last.

"Go on," encouraged River.

"I didn't know I was a wizard until I was eleven years old," he said, a fond smile gracing his lips as he remembered Hagrid, the gentlest half giant he had the fortune of meeting.

"I used to live with my aunt and uncle and they abhorred anything that was not part of their prim and proper pathetic life style." He glanced up and smiled ruefully, "Suffice to say I wasn't much of an ordinary boy and I most certainly didn't fit into their definition of _normal_."

Nobody dared interrupt Harry, they didn't want him to change his mind and stop.

"When the letter first came, inviting me to Hogwarts, my relatives burned the letter without letting me read it. The next day, three letters showed up _inside_ milk bottles and eggs."

"Inside eggs!?" Jayne said incredulously. "How is that even possible?"

"Jayne," Mal hissed and frantically gesturing at him to shut up and let Harry talk.

"Anyway," continued Harry. "They freaked out, well freaked out is kind of an understatement. Anyway they boarded up every inch of the house until it felt like we might even have a problem getting oxygen into the house!" Harry started chuckling again and his eyelids began to droop but he straightened up and stared at the crew with a silly grin.

"Now the next day was even better!" Harry said moving his hands animatedly. "Hundreds of letter began to pour down the chimney and started to pelt my relatives. Honestly," he said laughing, "I've never seen anyone look so scared of paper before!"

"Didn't you try to read them?" asked Zoe curiously.

Mal glared at Zoe.

"I did, but uncle just held me by the collar and made sure I didn't get to read a single one." Harry started laughing again. "It was really funny now that I think about it. Anyway, uncle Vernon decided to leave the house and bundled all of us into the car and just began to drive aimlessly. All he wanted to do was get as far away from the freaks as possible."

"After a day of travelling with a raving mad uncle and my cousin who had been throwing tantrums all day long about missing all his favourite TV shows, we finally stopped at some remote port side village and Vernon took us out to this rundown shack built on a rock sticking out of the sea and to make matters worse, there was a storm coming."

River laughed at the absurdity of it all.

"Yeah," agreed Harry. "I honestly thought that I'd die that night. Half expected that shack to be blown away at any moment but it was stronger than I expected."

Harry sighed and his head began to drop to the table.

"Harry?" called Mal and said boy's head snapped up, "Huh?"

"You were saying?" Mal said pointedly. This was too great an opportunity to pass up.

"Oh yeah, yeah, umm where was I?" Harry muttered disoriented. Somewhere far in the recesses of his mind a voice was shouting at him to shut up but it was too far away to pay any attention to.

"The shack, in the middle of nowhere amidst a raging storm," supplied River helpfully.

"Right, right, anyway so a few minutes before midnight I began to count down as it was my birthday and this sense of foreboding began to fill me and just at the stroke of midnight there was this huge bang and the front door was blasted off its hinges."

Zoe gasped and River scooted closer not wanting to miss a single word.

"He was huge," laughed Harry, "And I was terrified because I couldn't see his head, for a moment I thought a headless monster had come to eat me but then Hagrid ducked and squeezed into the hut and looked at me with the kindest eyes I've ever seen. My uncle then came skidding into the room armed with a rifle but Hagrid just rolled his eyes and bent the weapon upwards!"

"Wow," Jayne said looking impressed. "That's some strength!"

Harry nodded, "He was part giant and had a fascination with creatures. He used to bring the most dangerous creatures to school and then try to convince us that they were harmless," said Harry snorting. "Hagrid had a very warped view of what was dangerous and what was not."

"What sort of creatures?" asked River eagerly. Harry winced as River's probing became stronger and in his current state he wasn't able to keep his shields up. He gave her a look and she eased up on the pressure with something akin to chagrin on her face.

"Sorry," apologized Harry and River just muttered asking him to proceed.

Harry's head began to drop again.

"Harry!" called Zoe loudly and his head snapped up and he looked around blearily.

"Huh?"

"You were saying?" she pressed.

"Oh yeah. Anyway, he introduced me to the magic world, told me about my parents, took me to Diagon Alley and he had also brought me a birthday cake and gave me a gift."

Harry face lit up in happiness. "It was the first cake and proper gift I had ever gotten," he said emotionally. "Everything about the wizarding world was magical, I saw goblins, funnily dressed people, brooms that could fly, the grossest ingredients you can imagine for a potion, books that talked and insulted your intelligence, mirrors that had a superiority complex, owls that delivered post, magic wands and it was simply amazing."

The rest of the conscious people looked pretty amazed too.

"And it was such a change from my spiteful relatives. I loved every bit of it, not because of the magic but because of the freedom I felt when I boarded the train."

"Train?" asked Jayne confused, "Where did a train come from?"

"Oh that's the Hogwarts express, it's the train wizards and witches take to get to the school," explained Harry. "It's where I met my best friends for the first time."

"Where was your school?" asked Mal and held his breath. This might just give them a clue about where Harry was from.

"Oh somewhere up in the mountains," said Harry vaguely. "We tried to plot it on the map once but we couldn't find a proper fit for it anywhere. It was like there were acres of land where nothing was supposed to be there."

"That's …. Huh."

"The castle was something else," Harry said wistfully and his mind wandered off again. "Who's up for another shot," he asked suddenly and stood up to grab the bottle.

It was a bad idea.

His felt his head spin alarmingly and his legs felt boneless. He tried to grab on to something but he just flayed his arms around wildly and stumbled back. Unluckily his leg got stuck under the chair and with a tremendous bang both him and the chair fell over.

Mal and Jayne burst out laughing at the comical scene.

"Harry! Are you alright!" gasped Zoe moving to help him but she too quickly grabbed on to the table feeling queasy. "Take note not to stand up," she said wincing and slowly sank back into her chair leaving a groaning Harry to untangle himself.

Jayne and Mal were still laughing hard and they laughed harder when Harry tried to stand again only to fall over again.

"Come on Harry you can do it!" cheered Jayne.

"Oh god," Harry moaned. "What was in that whiskey?"

"Whatever it had, I didn't even realize when it started affecting me," Mal said chuckling.

"As smooth as a whore's ass," agreed Jayne reaching for the bottle again.

"Jayne, please keep those comments to yourself," muttered Zoe looking disgusted.

"What'd I say!?"

"Jayne, I'm drunk and I have no qualms about shooting you if you continue talking!"

"I'll help you," River chimed in. "A few bullets in him might make him a better person," she said.

Jayne looked at her horrified. "Mal, I think she's becoming psycho Tam again," he said fearfully. He hadn't forgotten River's threat about killing him with her brain. It gave him nightmares every now and then.

"Relax you big ox," snorted Mal, "She's just kidding! Aren't you River?"

River just looked at Jayne in the eye unblinking.

"Mal? She's freaking me out Mal."

"Harry why don't you go on with your story?" said Zoe quickly. "Harry?"

Four pair of eyes looked down and found Harry fast asleep on the floor, snoring away to glory.

"Damn," muttered River, "And it had just become more interesting!"

Mal turned his chair around and poked Harry with his foot. He didn't want to get up after seeing the way Harry and Zoe had reacted.

"Harry!" he called aloud but the wizard didn't respond. He was lying flat, eagle spread on the metal floor. Mal kicked him a little harder hoping for some sort of reaction.

"No good," he announced and turned his chair back to the table. "Magic boy is down and out for the count."

Jayne gathered the three glasses and filled them again. "I bet I'll be the last man standing," he challenged looking at his crew mates.

"Ha, you wish you were the last one standing," scoffed Zoe.

"Well let's find out shall we," said Mal, his eyes gleaming and they drowned their glasses. Mal reached for the bottle to pour some more but it was empty. "Huh, when did that happen?" he asked confused.

Zoe looked around but the unfortunately the other bottles were on the kitchen counter which was quite far away.

All of them turned to River with pleading eyes. "River, honey, do you mind passing us that bottle of scotch?"

River rolled her eyes and slid of the table, "I'm off to bed," she announced. She considered dragging her brother to his room but Kaylee was too entangled in his arms to even try. Instead she just grabbed Harry's arms and with surprising strength she hauled him to his room and left him on the floor.

"River please!" Mal yelled desperately.

River walked back to the table looking at them sternly. "Alcohol is bad for you," she said severely and walked back to her room and slammed the door shut.

"Damn," mumbled Jayne. "I guess I'll get it," he said and tried standing up which he did so successfully much to Mal and Zoe's shock.

"Ha!" he said triumphantly and took a step forward before falling flat on his face.

He didn't get up.

"Gorramit," cursed Mal.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Oh god," grumbled Harry as he stumbled to the bathroom. The door felt much further away than it looked but that was because he was moving sideways not frontways. He didn't remember how he wound up in his bedroom and he didn't want to count the number of times he woke up to go and puke his guts out. His stomach burned like someone had dropped a ton of acid in there.

He tried to remember what had happened last night and he did remember laughing a lot, Mal and Jayne goofing around, Kaylee messing around with Simon and a LOT of drinking and then it was blank. He tried harder but there was nothing. It was a very disconcerting feeling.

Twenty minutes later Harry walked out of his room still feeling very woozy and he realized that the ship wasn't moving. The engines had been turned off.

He found no one in the galley and went up to the bridge where he found Mal snoozing in the chair.

"Captain?" he called hoarsely.

Mal jerked in his seat and looked around wildly. "Huh, oh, it's just you," he said in relief.

"Expecting someone else?"

"The last time we were here, we robbed a hospital, so yeah, I'm a little jittery," he said dryly.

"Where's everybody else?"

"Inara has gone to conduct business," he said, the distaste obvious in his voice. "The last time I saw River, she was busy re-wiring the mule."

"Why was she doing that?" Harry asked bemused.

Mal shrugged, "Don't ask me what goes on in little Tam's head. You and the doc are the experts now."

"Just the doc," Harry corrected. "What about the rest?"

Mal yawned, "Jayne made it to his bunk a few hours back and Zoe and Simon have gone out shopping with Kaylee."

"Oh, okay, I'm going to go and look for River," Harry said. "Need to discuss some things with her."

"Don't bother," replied Mal. "I went looking for her about fifteen minutes back and she had disappeared. I swear that girl knows more hidey-holes on my boat than I could ever know."

Harry grinned, "I'll find her."

"I'm right here," intoned River.

"Holy!" cried Harry leaping away from her and Mal started violently at the sudden appearance of the girl.

"Merlin, I almost had a heart attack River!" Harry complained.

River tucked her blonde hair behind her ear and frowned. "It's not my fault if you didn't hear me follow you," she said.

"Follow me? You've been following me?" asked Harry confused. "Since when have you been following me?"

"Since you left your room," she said and her wide eyes narrowed slightly. "And because you passed out, your shields disappeared and I wasn't able to sleep!"

"Were you reading my mind again?" Harry hotly asked River.

"I was reading everyone," said River blankly. "I couldn't sleep properly at all."

"Then how were you managing before Mr Wizard descended on us?" asked Mal.

"I wasn't."

"Oh," Mal said looking a tad uncomfortable. "Are you managing now?"

"He helps," she said pointing a finger at Harry.

"Good to know," said Mal laughing at Harry's expression.

"I'm not helping," he argued. "You can't keep relying on keeping your focus on me all the time. Look what happened last night!"

"Well if someone could do more than tell me to focus on his gorram mind then I wouldn't have to!"

Mal was sensing the same old argument and immediately nipped it in the bud. "You can take your lovers spat outside," he said idly and was instantly the focus of two angry pair of eyes.

River just sneered at them and stormed out.

"Did she just sneer at me!?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Oh yea," said Mal chuckling, "First time I've seen her do that."

"What happened to the loving wife I wonder," sighed Harry.

"Get used to it," said Mal wisely, "Wash used to suffer Zoe's wrath all the time." Mal felt a wave of regret and sadness saying his old pilots name but he buried in deep within him just like he did with every other emotion he didn't like.

"And just out of curiosity, how _exactly_ are you helping her?" asked Mal. "I mean, Simon said that the Alliance had removed a part of her limbic system!"

"What the hell a limphic system?" Harry asked confused.

"Doc said it's a part of your brain that regulates emotions and feelings and all that stuff, and its limbic, not limphic," Mal corrected.

"They removed part of her brain!?" Harry said in shock. "How is that even possible?"

Mal shrugged, "Hell if I know, half of Simon's explanation flew over my head."

"Wow," Harry said. "That's just unreal."

"Well?" promoted Mal.

"Oh, I don't know how I'm helping her but I think it has more to do with how River's power works."

"And how does it work?"

"I don't know, but from what I've seen she can read minds _and_ she can read the minds of machines and stuff too."

"What?"

"That's the only way I can put it," said Harry, "I mean, she can tell if some piece of equipment is about to fail or go critical and she can read into a situation further than possible."

"Meaning what?"

"Kaylee was telling me about the time when your engine got busted and you had to abandon the ship?"

Mal nodded and patted the bridge console affectionately, "One of our most harrowing experiences."

"Well apparently River said fire just before the fire broke out and on Miranda she somehow knew that everyone was dead!" he said. "Now that does not have anything to do with mind reading."

"She's psychic, so she's can look into the future and read minds," Mal said.

Harry frowned, "You mean she's a seer too?"

"Seer?"

"A witch who can see the future, they're known for making prophecies about the future," explained Harry. "I seriously doubt River is a bloody seer!"

"Why?" Mal asked.

"Well," Harry said and then paused. Was it possible that River was a seer too? Harry dismissed that thought as soon as it came. The chances of River, who was technically a muggle, being a seer and a mind reader was next to impossible.

"Well maybe you can find some answers on Sihnon."

"I hope so," Harry said.

Mal noticed that Harry seemed to have a lot on his mind and felt like he needed to lighten up a little. "Come on," he said getting up from his seat.

"Come on where?"

"Let's play a game. Maybe we can get River to join in too," he said smiling.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

When Inara returned the first thing she noticed was the amount of noise that was coming from the cargo bay. Curious, she made her way there and found the entire crew involved in some sort of game. There was a net in the centre and it seemed like there were two teams, she was never sure about that considering all the cheating and team switching that usually took place.

She saw Harry kicking the ball but Jayne caught hold of it and tried to hurl it into the net but River kicked him at the back of his knees dropping him and taking the ball herself.

"Foul!" screamed Zoe.

"No foul," shouted Harry tackling Kaylee to the ground just as she reached River. "Score already! He yelled at River but unfortunately Mal and Simon caught hold of her and stole the ball from her and scored.

"Hell yea!" shouted Mal, "We win!"

"No you don't," argued Harry, "Simon is on our team."

"No he's not, he's on our team!"

"Is anyone going to penalize River for her unsporting foul!" yelled Jayne.

"Ahem." Inara cleared her throat loudly and was deeply offended when no one even responded.

"Ahem!" she called out straining her vocal cords.

She gave up when she saw everyone join in on the debate on which team Simon was supposed to be on. She found it hilarious that Simon was the only one being ignored, well apart from her.

"Fine!" said River loudly, "Fine!"

"Fine what?" snapped Zoe.

"Whoever scores next wins," she announced dramatically and immediately pounced on the ball.

She was nearly crushed by the number of bodies that followed.

"Pass it to me!" screamed Zoe.

"No!"

"Get that ball!"

"No! Leave _my_ balls!"

"Help!"

Suddenly the ball slipped out of the pile of bodies and rolled into the net.

"I scored!" yelled seven exuberant voices.

Dead silence and narrowed eyes followed that and Inara took that opportunity to have her voice heard. "Hey!" she yelled loudly.

"Inara!" gasped Kaylee happily. "So good to see you!"

"So are you all in your own teams or are there actually two teams?" Inara asked sounding amused.

"Well there were two teams at the start," said Jayne rubbing his arm where tooth marks were imprinted.

"Too much politics and infighting in the game caused too many changes and instability," River said solemnly. "But if I remember correctly, it's Zoe, Jayne and I in one team and Mal, Harry and Kaylee in the other as of now."

"What about Simon?"

"Yea, what about me River?"

"Nobody wanted you in their team," deadpanned River.

"What! Why!?" he said shocked.

"You weren't willing to rough it out doc," said Jayne. "Tried to play by the rules!" he mocked.

"There is nothing wrong with trying to play a game by the rules," Simon argued. He gave up when he noticed no one but Kaylee was paying attention to him and she had that glint in her eye that he knew led to him being exhausted for hours.

"Kaylee?" he said cautiously.

"I just thought of something awesome," she said happily and then proceeded to drag him out of the cargo bay and towards the engine room.

"Anyone want to put a do not disturb sign board there?" joked Mal.

"I'll do it," volunteered Jayne.

"Oh no you don't," snapped Inara, "You're going to be in your bunk!"

"That works too," he said lecherously.

Harry noticed River slink away and wondered what she was up to.

"River!" called Inara and the reader froze, like she was caught doing something bad. Harry narrowed his eyes in suspicion. The last time she looked like that was when she snuck into his room and read his mind.

"What?"

"I got some dresses that are native to Sihnon," she said holding up big bag that seemed to be bursting.

"Oooo," River went excitedly.

"But you better put on those lenses, your blonde hair clashes horribly with your brown," said the companion. "And thanks for the credits Harry!" she added brightly.

"Anything left?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Uh, no. But I think you have to give me a couple hundred more, I might have overspent a little," she said sheepishly.

"Oh boy, you lent money to the Inara!?" Mal said disbelievingly. "Have you forgotten that she's a woman!?"

"She said it was important to keep up a proper disguise so I didn't argue. Of course, I didn't think she'd spend it all!"

Mal and Jayne just shook their heads simultaneously mourning the depths of the wizard's naïvety.

"Bye," Inara said wiggling her fingers and went to her shuttle slinging the bags behind her back.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The time had come. Harry, River, Mal and Simon were in an alley a few minutes away the airbase and the atmosphere was tense. Getting past security was a test the two teens could not afford to fail.

"Act like you belong," Mal said seriously. "Don't look them in the eye but don't avoid it either."

"That's helpful," snorted Harry.

"River," Simon began. "Just… stay calm and don't do anything stupid."

River pursed her lips and frowned at Simon. "Those are disturbing thoughts Simon."

Simon reddened, "Well don't okay!"

River simply rolled her eyes.

Mal and Harry looked at Simon curiously, both wondering what the man was thinking.

"Don't ask," Simon said immediately.

"I think it's time we made a move," Harry said. A bubble of excitement and nervousness engulfed him as he glanced out of the small alley, his eyes zooming in on the massive complex up ahead from where a transport ship took to the sky every few seconds.

"Best of luck," Mal said and shook Harry's hand while Simon gave his sister a bone crushing hug.

"Simon!" complained River.

"Be careful," he whispered and turned to Harry. Harry just nodded and exchanged a meaningful look with the doctor.

"24 hours?" asked Harry.

"24 hours," confirmed Mal and with that Harry dragged the large suitcase behind him and with River by his side they started the short walk to the Alliance departure terminal.

"This is it," River said schooling her face into an image of nonchalance. Inara had picked out some of the finest for them to wear and it showed. River was wearing a short sleeve, full length blue Quipao split from knee down and its edges were strewn with beautiful gold patterns. Long earrings hung from her ear and a shiny silver ring with a modest sized emerald sitting on top was displaying itself proudly on her ring finger. Of course it was a fake but nobody needed to know that.

Beside her Harry sported a dark grey mandarin jacket with two silver dragons fighting over a pearl displayed boldly on the front coupled with black pants giving him the aura and impression of a well off business person and together Harry and River looked incredibly classy.

They reached the crowded terminal and stood in line behind the other passengers.

"Are you feeling okay?" Harry whispered in River's ear.

"Fine," River replied. "But if you stop breathing down my neck I'll be better!"

"Just checking," grumbled Harry and soon in was their turn.

"Identification and tickets," the guard asked in his baritone like voice.

The not married couple silently produced their Id's and tickets. River smiled winningly at the guard.

The guard just swiped their cards in a slot and placed their tickets under a scanner. A couple of tense seconds later, their fake Id's were returned.

"Departure terminal 8 and submit your luggage for transport," he said and let them pass.

They passed through the security check and Harry looked around cluelessly wondering where to go next. Fortunately River knew exactly what to do and where to go having done this loads of times in her childhood and she subtlety steered him around.

It wasn't long before the pair finally got through their terminal and the long oasis class ship was right in front of them. The ground staff was loading the cargo on the ship and Harry spotted their suitcase amongst the dozens of bags being loaded. Right at the entrance of the ship were two very official looking officials holding a simple box type device and both Harry and River knew this was the test to beat.

River slipped her hands into Harry's and the pressure on Harry's occlumency shields began to grow stronger.

He squeezed her hands reassuringly. "You're going to be fine," he said to her.

The man just held his hand out and Harry handed him his Id while River did the same with the other.

Their cards were swiped and the men took a good look at the two as a stream of data kept popping up on their screens.

A few minutes later the men nodded and stepped aside. "Welcome aboard Mr and Mrs Williams. Hope you enjoy your stay on Sihnon."

Harry and River smiled politely and made their way to their seats and once they had taken a seat Harry heaved a great sigh of relief and grinned at River.

"That was easy wasn't it?"

"Speak for yourself," River said. "My heart was racing so fast that I came so close to snapping that man's neck."

Harry's relief turned to worry. "And now?"

River shrugged and smoothed out her dress. "You're the only one who has to fear for his neck," she said slyly.

"I'd like to see you try," retorted Harry.

River raised an eyebrow. "You think you could beat me one on one?"

"I don't think, I know," Harry said snorting. "And besides, you can't control crazy killer Tam yet can you?"

"It's a work in progress," she grumbled.

Harry laughed and leaned back into his seat sighing at its comfort. "Well enjoy the ride for now and don't go psychotic on me. Now excuse me while I shut my eyes for a bit. The last few days have been accompanied by sleep deprivation."

River rolled her eyes gestured to one of the stewardesses.

"Could you be a doll and bring me some magazines," she said cheerfully in a perfect imitation of Harry's accent.

"Of course ma'am. Is there be anything else?"

"Sandwiches and chocolate milk."

"Of course ma'am," said the woman and left.

Harry stared at River in shock.

"What?" she said cheekily. "I'm your wife aren't I?

Harry shut his eyes tight and prayed this marriage nightmare would soon be over.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**A/N: **Read the previous chapters once and was shocked to find the number of mistakes. I'm surprised you managed to read it!

**If you find any inconsistencies and grammatical errors etc etc please do let me know. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer:**Just a fan. Don't own anything and certainly not making any money out of this.

**Chapter 12: The Job**

**12 hours later**

Their progress through security checks once they made it to Sihnon was unhampered and after numerous security checks and data updating they finally made their way outside the airbase. Harry felt his mouth drop open at the sight in front of him. It was nothing like he had ever expected a core planet to be.

Beside him River's eyes were dancing in happiness. It was the break of dawn and they were looking at a vast stretch of wild, untamed greenery with the sounds of a hundred birds echoing around them. The roads, instead of being on the ground, extended high above the tree tops and there were many such roads extending as far as their eyes could see without the support of any pillars.

Behind them was the fancy airbase brimming with technology and in front of them was nature at its best.

"Beautiful," River whispered. She felt like running into the woods and dancing to her hearts fill.

"Come on," Harry said, "We have work to do."

There was a line of yellow cabs lined up outside the entrance and Harry dragged River along. She was protesting and wanted to go for a walk into the forest but a short reminder of their mission here stopped her from wandering off.

"Where to sir?"

"A good hotel," Harry said as he pushed River inside. The driver nodded and stowed their suitcase in the back before getting in and starting the vehicle. It almost made no sound at all and they didn't even feel the vehicle start to move.

River rolled down her window and stuck her head out with a wide grin on her face. "It's so peaceful!" she gushed.

"Most peaceful and prosperous planet in the verse," the driver agreed.

Harry tried to pull River back inside but she resisted and then Harry gave up. Let her have her fun, he thought and observed the scenery below him.

A blur of green and blue raced past them as they travelled and occasionally they would spot a monastery almost hidden by the vast forest.

"How do you get to those monasteries?" River asked.

"There are some special paths one has to take and there are some routes on this road itself which provide a way to the monasteries."

River pulled her head back inside and rolled the window back up. Her blonde hair was all messed up but she looked terribly pleased with herself.

"Can we go?" she asked Harry.

"If time permits," he said.

River huffed, "Spoilsport," she muttered under her breath.

Soon the city came into view and once again Harry had to admit it was nothing like he had imagined it to be. There were no tall buildings, no crowds, barely signboards like every other commercial planet they had been on and the houses and stores were all a mixture of ancient Chinese and modern architecture. All the buildings were well spaced out and they all had a silken awning in the front, all of different colours and sizes. Instead of regular street lamps there were rows of thousands of beautifully decorated lamps hanging above the roads connected by thin almost invisible strings giving them the impression that they were floating.

The cab pulled up in front of a place called 'Weng's Inn' It was more of a resort than a hotel. It was a collection of well-furnished shacks complete with hot springs, a swimming pool, a spa and a restaurant which offered the finest cuisines from all over the verse. He also had a vivid picture of the hole in his wallet widening with every step he took inside.

By the time they had settled in Harry was exhausted. The room was painted with red and gold reminding Harry of the Gryffindor common room.

"There's only one bed," was the first thing River said.

"We're supposed to be married idiot, what sort of couple sleeps on separate beds?"

"The fake kind," River said with a grin.

"Well I'm glad you finally said it," Harry said.

"You're sleeping on the couch," River said firmly and jumped onto the bed groaning at its comfort level. "This is amazing!"

"Why do you get to sleep on the bed?" argued Harry. "You're smaller and you like crawling into tiny uncomfortable places anyway!"

"That's River," she said. "Now I'm Emily Williams."

Harry just rolled his eyes and opened the suitcase. He dug into the side pockets and removed a small piece of paper.

"Right, it's not like we're going to be here for long anyway. Now it's six and I have to get meet a Roger who…" he paused and squinted trying to understand the handwriting, "Who will be wearing a black shirt and a white cap at 2 at a café Chang on Dragon Street. Are you going to come with me or laze around over here?"

"I'm coming," she said immediately. "You'll need someone level headed to keep you in line."

"Level headed? You?" Harry said doubtfully.

"Emily is level headed, has good taste in silk and wine and she's a spend thrift."

"I hear Inara talking," Harry said dryly.

River shrugged. "They gave me a list of things they wanted too," she said.

"Oh no," Harry said, his face falling.

"Can I have your bank card?" she asked politely.

"No."

River slid of the bed and as quick as a cat she covered the distance between them and snagged his wallet out his pants.

"Hey!"

"I asked nicely and you said no. Now I'm going to freshen up and you do whatever you want."

Harry sighed and watched glumly as River began to remove her clothes and arrange them in the cupboard. He averted his eyes as the articles of clothes became smaller and racy. He also detected a faint blush creeping up on her as she put them away and cursed Inara for the umpteenth time.

After they freshened up and had an expensive breakfast, the duo went into the city to do some exploring. The number of bags in Rivers hand kept increasing and while keeping a watchful eye on the reader Harry did his own bit of shopping until it was time for the meeting.

The street was aptly named Dragon Street seeing that the road was cobbled and at regular intervals there was a three dimensional illusion of a dragon and each was different from the other. The remarkable thing about the dragons was that instead of breathing fire it was breathing advertisements! It was a sort of commercial centre with cafés, theatres, stores selling silk clothes, silk bags, silk bed covers, and almost every third store were a silk something store. But Harry was once again marvelling at the mastery of architecture involved in the construction of the buildings. The street was more crowded than the rest of the city but there was a sense of discipline and an aura of arrogance around the people.

River was trying to avoid thinking about the people around her and was trying to focus on the numbers of birds that were flying all around. The last time she had seen a flock of birds was back home on Osiris. Her heart felt so much at ease just by being in a familiar environment. Although the buildings were much more sophisticated on Osiris and more than half the population comprised of lawyers and judges, the mentality of the people was still the same.

"We're here," Harry said suddenly.

The café was nothing special. A few tables and chairs erratically spread out, a glass freezing unit which displayed an assortment of pastries and puffs and a large machine behind the counter which probably made coffee.

Harry's eyes zipped around the room looking for someone meeting the description on the piece of paper and he spotted one at the centre of the café.

Harry pulled at River's arm but she yanked it back at glared at him. "Come on!" he hissed at her discretely.

River ignored him and went back to carefully observing the colourful and delicious looking pastries on display.

Sighing Harry let her be and casually walked to the table in question. "Roger I presume?" He was tall and thin. His hair spilled out of his cap and he had a messy beard and a cruel tint in his eye.

"You're just a kid!" he rasped scowling. "Those twins sent me a gorram kid?"

"Where are the goods?" Harry asked ignoring the insult.

'Roger' narrowed his eyes. "Where is the money?" he asked instead.

"You'll get the money once your business associates are satisfied with your items," Harry replied sharply. His eyes flickered towards River and he noticed her asking the sales person to remove at least a dozen of those pastries!

Roger growled and formed a fist, gesturing towards Harry threateningly.

"Oh I'm so scared," mocked Harry while inside he was feeling quite nervous. Fanty and Mingo hadn't told him that his contact was going to be some sort of psychopath. But he held it together and looked at Roger right in the eye. "I was told that the arrangements had been made and you were supposed to do was point me to the goods. Now if you don't I don't need to tell you that my associates are going to be mighty displeased."

The intimidating aura around Roger dropped. Apparently he did know what would happen to him if he messed up this deal.

"South of Chang'pei," he began. "Right on the outskirt of the city is an abandoned factory. Be there at midnight," he said and then he stood up abruptly knocking his chair over and left as fast as possible.

His timing couldn't have been better since River arrived at the table just then balancing three plates of pastries on her arm and behind the sales lady was balancing another four plates on her arms!

"They all looked too yummy to ignore," she said sheepishly.

"There's something known as restraint!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Back on Serenity a flurry of activity was going on. The other part was of the operation was going on which involved sneaking into the airbase on Ariel in the dead of the night and doing some remodelling to one of the transport ships.

This was one of the most important and dangerous part of the job and Kaylee was sweating buckets as she, Mal and Jayne bypassed security and stealthily made their way to the hangers. The crew had spent the last few hours identifying all the ships going to and fro from the air base and singling out the ones which were marked to fly to Sihnon. They located the ship they needed and quickly got to work.

"Jayne, keep guard," Mal whispered. "Kaylee…"

"Aye aye Cap'n," she said nervously and began to remove the tools from the large bag that Jayne and Mal had carried with them.

Time was of the essence and any screw up on their part would be catastrophic for River and Harry.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

It took only an hour to travel to Chang'pei and once again the scenery was amazing. This time they got to see rivers and even larger monasteries. Every time they saw a river Harry couldn't help but poke fun at River and he was even more delighted to see it was annoying her.

Chang'pei was the centre of trading on the planet and it was vastly different from the capital city. The sense of high class and flaunting of riches was absent from this city and Harry was thankful for that. There were a lot more modernized buildings and lesser greenery but their surroundings were still über clean and the low population in all the cities helped maintain that.

As they went across the city they came across dozens of small silk industries and countless monks and pilgrims just strolling in the city in their traditional outfits with their heads shaven clean. River was fascinated with the way the light bounced off their heads. She had even started calculating the trajectory of the light rebounding off their skulls and was ready to dive into physics of it all but she stopped when she saw Harry pretending to snore.

"Fine," she said disgruntled. "Be uneducated."

"Gladly," Harry muttered.

They were dropped off about a mile away from where the factory was supposed to be and Harry was beginning get an odd sensation in his gut. It was one he recognized really well; the sense of trouble.

The white star had almost set and the city was bathed with an orange hue. It reminded Harry of the numerous sunsets he had seen in London while wallowing in self-pity on the roof of Grimmauld place number 12.

"Who is Sirius?" River asked snapping him out of his memories.

"What!?" he replied startled.

"That name has been on your mind for the last six minutes and ten seconds," she said with an intent gaze.

Harry mentally checked his shields and realized that River was getting more adept and sneaking in albeit it was just the surface. The pressure was still there but her probes were more refined and stronger now. It was surprising that he hadn't noticed it all this time.

"Are you still reading everyone around you?" he asked her curiously after strengthening his occlumency shields further.

"Not as much as before," she admitted.

"I don't know why but I don't have a good feeling about this meeting."

"It's a trap," she said in a matter of fact tone.

Harry jerked to a stop and he gave River an incredulous look. "What the gorram hell do you mean?"

River shrugged and continued to walk.

Harry just stared at her retreating back before hurrying ahead and catching up with her. He looked around for a place they could talk but it was all offices and more offices.

He stopped a couple of woman and asked them for directions to some place where they could eat.

"Just keep going south and take a left when you reach the 24th main," they said simultaneously and exchanged amused glances and started giggling.

Harry just thanked them and dragged River along to what turned out to be another café. Harry didn't know if it was just him but he hadn't seen a single pub or bar anywhere since they had arrived on the planet. It was all about silk, coffee and religion and being rich.

They took a seat in a corner and Harry immediately rounded on River, "Now what do you mean it's a trap?" he whispered harshly.

River gave him a look and beckoned the waiter over smiling at him prettily.

"A cappuccino and a black forest please," she ordered.

"And you?" the waiter asked Harry.

"The same," he said impatiently.

"Now trap?" Harry asked, annoyance seeping into his voice with the lack of reaction from the reader.

"They're smugglers on a planet where smuggling is one of the most dangerous professions to have. If they get caught they won't be tried, they'll be sent to Osiris to be put to death."

"So," Harry said carefully, "Is the trap Alliance made or by the smugglers?"

"By the smugglers you idiot," sighed River. "Honestly don't you pay attention?"

"Pay attention to what? You?" He said snorting.

River rolled her eyes, "You're so distracted all the time," she said pityingly. "If you look you can see."

Harry was beginning to get a headache.

"Alright, why are the smugglers setting up a trap?" he asked her calmly.

River shrugged, "How am I supposed to know that? What am I, a mind reader?" she said condescendingly. Her mood brightened when her black forest arrived.

Harry sighed. "And here I thought you were getting better," he said under his breath.

"I am," she said through a mouth full of cake.

The pair spent the next few hours in the café and Harry was beginning to admire River's eating capacity.

"Simon is going to blame me for sure when he sees you all bloated like a balloon," he told River grinning.

"I've had a high metabolism since I was a kid," she said and daintily wiping her lips clean.

Harry found his gaze drawn to her lips but he quickly shook himself and checked the time. "It's almost eleven," he said, "Time to get going."

Harry cleared the bill and they quickly made their way towards the outskirts of the city. It didn't take them long to spot the factory. It was probably a mile outside the city and there was nothing else around the factory and Harry was beginning to understand how easy it would be to set up a trap in such a desolate area. The factory itself gave macabre a new definition.

"River," Harry said. "What do you think about splitting up?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm getting the feeling it really is a trap," he said.

"So split up and go where?" she asked looking at the rundown factory. "There seems to be only one entrance."

"Can you fight without being triggered?"

River frowned, "Maybe."

"Yes or no?" he asked seriously.

"Well," she said, the tone of her voice suggesting uncertainty.

"Okay," interrupted Harry. "I'm going to go in through the front and you find another way in. Do you know what a chokehold is?"

Faster than Harry could react River swung behind him wrapped her arm around his neck and had him on his knees in the blink of an eye. Dark spots started to cloud Harry's vision.

"Okay!" he managed to choke out, "Okay!" River let go and Harry inhaled deeply welcoming the flood of air in his lungs.

River looked surprised but pleased with her reaction.

"I take it you know then," he said hoarsely rubbing his neck. "Now find another way in. You're good at sneaking around so anyone else you find in that factory you take them out."

"You mean kill them?"

"No, no, just knock them out," he added hastily. "I'll go in through the front and deal with Mr Roger. And if they have any weapons on them take them and cover me alright?"

River nodded.

"Right," Harry said taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

River nodded again. "A little work out is just what I need right now."

Harry laughed.

"Alright then. Let's go."

And just like that, the two less than normal teenagers split up and headed into their first illegal business meeting. Both were excited and a little tense but neither of them was a pushover in a fight. They had a supernatural edge over their opponents and a desire to complete their first job successfully.

Not a sound penetrated the darkness around the factory and the only light to rely on was from the two moons in the sky. Harry found it surreal to see two moons which were each in a different phase and position when he was so used to seeing just one moon back on Earth.

He reached the entrance way to the factory and saw that one of its large doors was hanging by a single hinge and the other lying on the ground. Harry noticed a number of footprints on the dust covered door confirming the presence of the smugglers and after taking a deep breath he stepping inside navigating his way around the broken machinery towards the dim light radiating from a little deeper inside the factory that could only be coming from a bulb.

River went around the factory and found no other entrances except for the one Harry had gone through. Looks like it had to be going in from a window then, she deduced. But the windows were high and there were no visible ladders or emergency exits anywhere.

"No wonder the factory seems to have burnt down," she scoffed. Her eyes roamed around looking for viable entry points until she finally found one. There was a rusted pipe running up to the roof but there was a window a feet to its right and about twenty feet above the ground.

It was a piece of cake for River. The only fact she bemoaned was that her shirt and pants would get dirty; it was something she was hoping to avoid. Pushing the tragedy of her clothes to the back of her mind she shined up the pipe like a monkey without a tail, grabbed a hold of the window sill and swung herself inside. She held on to the sill hanging there while her eyes got accustomed to the little moon light streaming in through the holes in the ceiling.

There was nothing to step onto inside and River hauled herself up and sat there searching for a way to get inside. She could make out a steel stairwell but it was a little too far for her to jump on and further inside she could make out a room which was lit up and there were people inside.

The smugglers, she thought. She had to hurry.

Above her there were quite a few pipes running through the entire factory and one of them felt close enough for her to jump and hang onto. She then grabbed a hold of the top of the window and stood up on the sill. Knees bent, eyes focused she jumped and in one smooth motion caught a hold of the pipe and with the momentum of her body she wrapped her legs around the pipe and began to move towards the stairwell.

One, two and three; 3 men standing outside the room with the light talking and none of them were armed. She could make out Harry and two other men inside talking. Once she was close enough she let go of the pipe and landed with a slight thump on the stairwell and immediately crouched and silently moved down.

The men didn't even see her coming. A hand emerged from the shadows striking one man behind his neck and he went to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Before the man beside him could respond to the sudden attack another hand wrapped around his neck in a powerful chokehold and the third thug found an arm wrapping around his face. He didn't even have the time for the rush of fear to fill his body before his head twisted and neck snapped.

Three seconds was all it took. One second for each thug.

River stood over the two unconscious men and one dead with a deadly look in her wide eyes. She might be small, she might look frail but every muscle and every bone in that body was trained for combat.

Her mind began to sense agitation from the remaining smugglers and she quickly hurried to the open door and hid there listening to the conversation quietly.

"I don't rutting care about Fanty and Mingo!" Roger said in a heated voice. "If they think they can send gorram kids to negotiate with us and expect us to cooperate then they've got another thing coming!"

Harry sighed. This guy had some serious issues, he thought irritably. He was literally on the edge of losing control and only the promise of credits was keeping him sane. Harry wondered what could make this man lose control and the only reasonable answer Harry could come up with was that the alliance was onto him and he needed the money to go underground or into space.

"You should care," Harry said dangerously. "Because if we don't contact them soon and if he doesn't get his cargo they are going to get angry and I'm sure you know what happens to people that screw them over don't Mr Roger."

"Shut up!" he screamed and pulled out a pistol. "Steve, make the gorram call!"

"Put it down Roger," Harry warned. "Let's do what's best for all of us. You just hand be those cases and lets just call it a night."

Just as Roger's trembling hands began to squeeze the trigger a knife flew past Harry and embedded itself in his hand.

It was the cue for Harry to act.

A scream tore through Roger's mouth and was silenced as Harry's elbow smashed into his throat. His partner Steve pulled out his own piece but a swift kick by River in his chest ended it.

Roger on the other hand was cradling his hand and choking in one corner of the room. Harry heaved a sigh and dragged one of the suitcases to check their contents.

A code was required to open it.

"What the code Roger?" Harry asked him but the man just glared at Harry.

River breezed past him and grabbed a fist full of his hair and slammed him into the wall. "The code?"

"5356," he managed to rasp before River slammed his head against the wall once more and he lost consciousness.

Harry looked at the girl in amazement. "Violent much?" he asked her.

River shrugged. "It's involuntary," she replied. "Much like muscle memory."

Harry shook his head at the reasoning and punched in the code. The case opened with a hiss along with a good amount of vapour.

He gasped when he looked at the contents of the case. "These are cocoons!"

"These are artificially produced," River said with a critical eye. "Judging by the size and colour and," she picked one up and gently pressed it, "and strength, these are high grade cocoons. And considering the way they were stored these may have been very recently engineered."

"Wow," was all Harry could say. Suddenly their mission seemed a lot more dangerous and Harry could see why Roger was so on the edge. He quickly shut the case, locked it and gestured at River to pick one while he took two. "Let's get out of here."

"Shouldn't we kill them?" River said.

"Let Fanty and Mingo deal with them," he said. "But if they had mentioned what kind of goods they had, I'm sure the twins would have offered them a lot more and come to think of it, us too."

When they left the room one of the men River had dealt with outside was stirring but not for long as River lashed out with her boot.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her actions.

"What?" she said defensively. "All of them were scum."

"I hope you didn't kill anyone," he said warily.

"Of course not," River said, sounding like the very idea of her killing someone was unimaginable.

Harry found himself not believing her one bit but it didn't bother him. He was just happy with the success of the first part of their mission.

As they walked back to the city Harry realized that the thought of killing didn't trouble him at all. During the war the very thought of killing used to make him sick and they avoided killing the enemy as much as possible but now, now he found himself not caring if River had ended anyone's life. Even he, Harry Potter, once known as a beacon of light, the saviour of the wizarding world was ready to kill those men if the need arose.

He wondered if it was just the way this future was or was it because he had already killed a lot of men and seen so much death that now it didn't bother him at all. Or was it the nightmares? Just the thought of the nightmares sent a shiver down his spine. The nightmares had stopped plaguing his dreams but he dreaded the moment when they came back.

"What's wrong?" River asked him. She could sense the darkness of the thoughts racing through his mind even if she couldn't read them.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly, snapping out his morose thoughts.

"What's next?" she asked.

"Well hopefully Mal and Kaylee are done with their part of the job. We have to take these cases and load it onto a ship heading out of Sihnon."

River frowned, "Security will detect it," she said.

Harry smiled. "That's why we're not loading the cargo on the ship. It's going to be below the ship."

River's frown deepened and then she understood. "Oh, and then Serenity will snag the goods in space itself!"

"Exactly," Harry said. "The Alliance has a thorough security check when it comes to passengers and their luggage but why would they bother looking under the ship unless it's for maintenance. Kaylee is setting up a secure retaining cage on its underbelly and all we have to do is sneak in, find the ship and secure the cargo."

River could spot a dozen gaping holes in the plan and her face said it all.

Harry decided to elaborate. "The ship will be one which will land before four, three hours from now. They are going to observe the timetable of the ships coming to Sihnon and accordingly modify the necessary one. Obviously we can't slide these cases in, so we have to find a box of the correct dimensions, put these case in them and secure those boxes."

"But," began River but Harry cut her off. "These boxes are found in abundance in an Alliance airbase and it's a not hard to find an empty one."

"But," River said again and now Harry didn't have anything more to say. "How are we going to get there?" she said finally. "There are no cabs that operate this late at night."

Harry's confident attitude faltered. They hadn't thought of that. "Well I guess we're going to have to steal a vehicle."

He turned back and looked at the factory which was quite a distance away now. "I'm sure those morons had a vehicle," he muttered. "Did you spot anything when you circled the factory?" he asked River.

River shook her head. "Let's look around," she said. "We're at the edge of the city and they must have hid their vehicle somewhere nearby."

Fifteen minutes later they got lucky and found an open top speeder parked within a grove of coconut trees.

"See," Harry said with a broad grin and they dumped the cases in the back. "No problem!"

River rolled her eyes and made for the driver's seat but both her and Harry's hand closed over the handle at the same time.

"I'm driving," Harry said firmly.

"Do you even know how to?" countered River and she tried shoving him away but Harry stood firm.

"Of course!" lied Harry.

"You're lying," River said. "Move!"

"No you move," Harry said and tried to jump inside. River caught a hold of his shirt and jumped in too and there was a mad scramble for the seat, each trying to push the other into the other seat.

"Okay stop!" Harry hissed. Both were crapped up side by side on the seat.

"Do you yield?"

"Of course not," Harry snapped. "But we don't have time to argue so you drive now and halfway I'll take over, deal?"

"Deal," River bit back. "Now get out of my seat."

Harry climbed over her and didn't bother to be gentle as he knees dug into her thigh. River supressed the wince that threatened to overcome her and this time she successfully shoved him away.

River huffed and straightened out her shirt. "Look how dirty my shirt is," she complained. "Next time you're doing the dirty work."

"Well nobody told you to wear white now did they," Harry retorted.

River ignored him and pushed a button on the steering igniting the engine and pushing the speeder into the air. She then put the speeder in reverse and eased out of the grove. The two were forced back into their seats when River changed gears and shot away like a rocket.

Nearly two hours later two very happy teenager had parked the speeder a little distance away from the airport and slowly got out of the vehicle.

"That was fun," Harry said smiling broadly. The wind had done wonders to their hair. Harry's was comically standing at attention and River who had managed to maintain her fringe for so long, which was so very hard for her, was now missing and her hair looked like it had been sucked by a vacuum from behind.

They hauled the suitcases out from behind and quietly cut through the forest and hurried towards the main entrance. There was no way they could enter from anywhere else. The security measures put up around the airbase were top class and strolling in was the only option they had and that was why Mal had wanted Harry and River to be the ones to pull this off.

There was an entrance for authorized personals beside the departure terminal and the pair quietly hid behind the trees going over the plan once more.

"I'm going to make that guard open the door and have him prop it up for us," Harry whispered as they scanned the area looking for signs of moment.

"I'll be out of it so once he does it you have to rush inside while I make him walk away and I'll follow you in."

"Won't he realize that something is wrong?" River questioned.

"No," Harry replied, "He won't remember it but he'll be disoriented, that is why our timing has to be precise."

"What about cameras?"

"They don't have cameras everywhere. Mal and I worked it out. The good this about the Alliance is that they have no imagination. All their bases are absolutely alike in every way. A little tour of the airbase at Ariel showed us where the cameras are placed and how best to avoid them."

"This is Sihnon Harry," River said sceptically. "I'm sure their security will be tons better than any around the verse!"

"When it comes to the cargo, yes," Harry said smugly. "The rest is the same and that is exactly why we aren't smuggling our goods as cargo. We're going to sneak inside as normal employees, find the right ship and secure our goods. Then it's a matter of getting out and waiting."

"I can still see dozens of holes in this plan you know," she said.

"Well it's the only one we've got so deal," retorted Harry. "Plus we have a super advantage of having you and me."

River stared at him, her big blue eyes penetrating his own.

Harry began to feel a little uncomfortable at the intense look when she suddenly blinked and said, "You mean just me then."

Harry grinned and bit down a retort. They had work to after all.

"Alright let's get to it then," he said. He opened his bag and removed two blue Alliance jump suits and caps. "Put it on," he said.

"I'm not going to change in front of you!" River said affronted.

"Put it on top of your own idiot."

And finally they were ready. Harry took a deep breath and the pair quietly slunk towards the gates and hid behind the enormous pillars on the outside.

"Ready?" he whispered and River nodded.

Harry sat down and a few seconds later his head fell limp. River watched the guard stumble before he righted himself and looked around. She watched as he made his way to the restricted door and with a practiced motion slid his card through the slot and watched the door clink open. The guard then propped the door with a pen, dropped his key card inside and began to walk away towards the other end of the cab parking.

Harry's head jerked up when the guard was sufficiently out of sight and River wasted no time in dragging him up and hurrying in. Harry threw the pen outside for the guard to find and just as the guard came back into sight, albeit a little disoriented, the door and clicked shut.

Infiltration was a success and River beginning to go catatonic was a success too. The corridors were narrow and white and the minute River saw them her eyes went wide and her hands began to quiver.

Harry looked at her in horror.

"River! Not now! Oh god River, RIVER!"

He grabbed her face and looked into her eyes, her eyes which were radiating terror. A glimpse into her mind sent a sharp stab of pain in his own. Her mind was a whirlwind of emotions and for a moment shock overtook him as the intensity of being in River's mind was too much. Suddenly her reasons for breaking down were beginning to make much more sense but for the moment he buried those thoughts and did the only think that did make sense at the moment.

He reared his hand and delivered a sharp slap to River's cheek.

River's hand stopped shaking and the terror in her eyes gave way to fury. It was a remarkable change and Harry raised his hands defensively and backed away. "If you're done freaking out can we move on?"

Fury gave way to confusion and then comprehension.

Harry was glad her panic attack had stopped as swiftly as it came and they moved along without saying a word.

They continued their journey through the labyrinth like corridors and it was a good five minutes later when River chose to break the silence.

"It was the white walls," she whispered.

"I figured," Harry replied and that was it. They had to use the guard's key card a few more times avoid a few officials until they finally reached the hangers.

It was quite a magnificent complex. Massive ships parked diagonally, sparks flying as mechanics made repairs and modifications to a few ships, innumerable tools hanging from the ceilings inside the hangers, a powerful jet of water directed unto a smaller ship cleaning it thoroughly and the most impressive of all, the gargantuan hydraulic lift, taking the transport ships one level below the ground and one level above the ground.

Harry looked to his left from his crouched position to talk to River only to realize that she was not there!

"River?" he whispered in panic, his eyes darting around frantically.

He spotted her near one of the ships with a delighted expression on her face as she trailed her fingers on his body.

"Oh for merlin's sake!" he cursed and hurried after her while trying to stick to the shadows.

He roughly grabbed her arms and pulled her away. "River, this is not the time and place for acting eccentric!"

"Let go of me," she warned yanking her arm away.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Will you stop acting like that? We have a job to do so focus," he hissed angrily.

"You're the one acting like that, whatever that is," River hissed back.

"Whatever," growled Harry, supressing his anger with his occlumency and he felt River's constant pressure on his shields increase a notch. "Look," he said. "The ships coming in are first parked over there to be cleaned before they are taken to be refuelled and finally to be restocked. We need find the ship and load the cargo before it's taken back for departure."

"There are five ships being cleaned right now and one is being restocked," River said clearly, her earlier bout of anger forgotten. "It's ten past four right now so our ship should be there now," she said pointing towards the cleaning area where about ten workers were bustling about getting the interiors ready for another journey.

"That means loading the goods there is out of the question. We'll have to do it when it moves."

"That will be hard," River said frowning. "But first we have to find the right container don't we?"

Harry nodded and gestured her to follow him and hiding in the shadows of the ships they made their way to the hangers.

"We need a four by four container," he said quietly. "They should be at the end of the hanger, in the store room."

Finding the container and securing the suitcases inside was not a problem. Carrying it across the yard stealthily was.

"Remind me again, why we didn't use one of those fork lift trucks?" panted River.

"Because we don't know how to use them and it would be too suspicious," Harry grunted, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"And two teenagers lugging a heavy container from one end to another is not suspicious at all," she muttered under her breath.

"Will you stop your whining and keep moving. You're criticism is not helping!"

River chose to mumble insults under her breath.

They had to take the long way around to avoid the lights and by the time they made it both teens felt like collapsing.

"Why was the container so heavy!" gasped Harry, taking in deep breaths.

River had her hands on her knees as she brought her laboured breath back to normal. "We have to hurry," she said wearily. "Looks like our ship is moving."

"What?" Harry said frowning. "How'd you know it's our ship?"

River responded by pointing at the bottom of the ship where a cage like structure was visible. It didn't look like much and they wouldn't have spotted it if they didn't know it was there.

Harry grabbed his end of the container. "Let's go!" he cried and with a groan River lifted her end and together they hurried after the ship. They ran as fast as they could for the ship was heading to be refuelled and that was simply a two man job. It was easier to be undetected unlike the cleaning and restocking points. It seemed luck was on their side.

"Don't make a sound," Harry whispered as they edged closer and closer to the cage. Harry was praying they wouldn't be seen because if they were, he knew escape would be almost impossible, even with their abilities. He was so nervous that he could feel the blood rushing all through his body and for a moment he felt like he could hear River's heart racing too.

Both of them were beginning to fear getting caught, now that they were so close to completing the mission.

The loud sound of the fuel pump masked the sound of their footsteps and as silently as possible they put down the container near the cage. There were three men chatting a few feet away from them with their backs towards the two.

Harry glanced at River and exchanged a nod. She turned kept an eye on the workers while Harry began to unfasten the bindings on the cage.

It didn't take long.

Kaylee had done a marvellous job of keeping things simple and a few minutes later they had loaded the container in and sealed it in.

The mission was a success and now all that remained was to escape undetected!

Harry, sporting a broad smile, signalled at River to follow him. They were so happy with the completion of their task that they didn't notice a fourth man come out of the ship.

The man had come out for some fresh air after making sure the fuel gauges were functioning normally and noticed two workers slinking away from the ship.

There was no else supposed to be on duty in this area so he ran towards them calling out but the noise of the fuel pump was too loud and they didn't hear him.

Harry and River shockingly didn't detect the man's presence until his hand closed over Harry's shoulder.

"Hey you," began the man but then something happened and his world turned to darkness.

Harry literally felt his heart jump into his throat when he felt the hand on his shoulder and he spun around swinging his arms wildly. The only problem was instead of him hitting the man, the man was flung away from him and he landed in the bushes which were a good twenty feet away.

River stared at Harry in shock and Harry himself was stunned.

He had felt it, just for a moment, the slither of power flowing through his veins and out of his hands.

Had he just done wand-less magic!?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**A/N:** Two updates for you today! Enjoy!


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:**Just a fan. Don't own anything and certainly not making any money out of this.

**Chapter 13 – The Emperor's Square**

"_Shun-sheng duh gao-wahn_," River swore.

"I've never done that before," Harry said, staring at his hands. "In fact I've neither seen nor heard of any wizard wandlessly banish _a person_ after their magic has stabilized!"

River saw that Harry seemed to be in shock and she happily reciprocated what he had done to her. She slapped him…. hard.

"You going into shock," she supplied innocently responding to his look of anger.

"No I wasn't! I was just surprised!"

River pointed towards the unconscious body, "What do we do about that?"

Harry grumbled and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the bushes. "Do you think they'll notice his absence?" he asked hopefully.

River just gave him a look. That was just wishful thinking.

"Okay," breathed Harry. "Okay," he repeated again. It was suddenly becoming very hard to think clearly. "Gorramit! What do we do?!" he growled softly.

"We could always kill him and dispose the body," River said as normally as talking about the weather.

"What? No!" snapped Harry. "No," he said again, "Let's, let's check his pockets."

"Keys, id, pressure gauge, wires, tape, lighter, cigarettes," River murmured as she began to empty the numerous pockets on the man's jumpsuit. At the mention of cigarettes an idea struck Harry.

He clumsily pulled out a cigarette and put everything else back in his pockets the way it was. River got an idea of what Harry was planning and began to haul the man to a light pole a little distance away. She gave Harry an amused look when he began to cough after lighting the cigarette.

"Let's go," he choked out, his face an image of disgust after the repulsive taste of tobacco. He grabbed the man's legs and quickly propped him up against the pole. River kept a sharp eye, looking for anyone in a position to spot them.

They put him in such a way that it looked like he was very relaxed and then Harry placed the cigarette in his mouth and the lighter enclosed in his hand. He wasn't worried about the cigarette falling on the man and burning him.

"Do you think they'll buy it?" Harry asked River feeling very nervous.

"We'll find out soon enough," she said stoically.

Harry and River waited with baited breaths. Both were ready to fight if things turned sour. Even though River wasn't reflecting any emotions, he could feel them on his shields. It was odd how River's focus on his mind was allowing him to understand. He pushed aside that train of thought and focused on the man in front of them.

They hid in the bushes waiting for someone to notice the unconscious man and it didn't take long at all. Just five minutes later the refuelling of the ship was done and the remaining workers began to call out for the man and when they found him there were quite a few swear words directed at him.

Luck was on their side as it turned out their victim had a habit of wandering off for a quick smoke.

"Wh-wha?" spluttered the man when he finally stirred.

"What the hell Stiess! You know we're on a gorram schedule here!"

"What happened to me?" he asked, groaning as he stood up. His whole body was aching.

"You're sleeping on the job is what is happening!" barked one of the men and by his attitude and posture he seemed to be the one in charge.

"N-no," he stuttered, blinking in confusion. "I saw two kids?"

"Good god man!" yelled the man in charge, thinking that Stiess was on some sort of pill. It wasn't uncommon among the night shift workers. It helped them stay focused but when the effects wore off the levels of exhaustion were high. "Get it together or I'm going to send you to the centre!"

The threat of the centre snapped Stiess back to attention and he hurried back towards the ship still feeling very dazed and confused. Had he dreamt being mysteriously blasted off his feet?

Hidden in the bushes Harry mentally sighed in relief. Once the men were out of sight he took a hold of River and quickly began the journey back out. Their job was done and now they had to simply escape the facility. Everything rested on luck.

The infiltration had taken them almost an hour and it was only a few minutes to dawn. Harry knew they had to out of there before the white star rose and the employees began to pour in.

"Come on River," he urged as they nearly flew through the corridors.

"I'm right beside you," she said, comfortably keeping pace with him.

Harry didn't reply. He had had enough adrenaline rushes for the night and all he wanted to do was get out as fast as possible but it was easier said than done. Thrice, they had almost been caught had it not been for his mind tricks. By the time they had finally made it out the birds were chirping and the white star could be seen on the horizon in all its glory.

They had made it and they were just in time to see the ship carrying their goods take to the sky. They had done it.

They had done it!

As quickly as possible they retreated into the woods and removed their jumpsuits before jumping into the speeder and speeding back to the city.

When Harry felt they were a safe distance away, a broad grin stretched his face and he turned to River who was enjoying the breeze. "A mission well done don't you think," he said cheerfully.

River nodded. "So what now?" she asked.

"We make for Xi'an," he said, his eyes gleaming. It was time to find the magical world. He didn't know why but he was certain there was something to be found on this planet.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Serenity **

Mal, Zoe and Simon were waiting anxiously. The clock was ticking and there was no sign of their quarry. Had the mission failed? Had they been caught?

Dark thoughts plagued their minds for hours until finally the little red button they were staring at began to blink.

"It's here!" barked Mal. "Zoe, get Jayne ready! Simon, keep the ship steady." He turned on the com and spoke, "Kaylee, how much more time do we have?"

The com crackled and Kaylee's voice was heard over the static. "A few minutes cap'n," she said nervously. She was watching the tracker in the engine room like a hawk and it was her job to detach the cargo."

Mal hurried down to the cargo bay just in time to watch Jayne step into his suit. "Are we ready?" he asked an alert Zoe.

She nodded.

"Cargo has been detached!" Kaylee shouted out loud, not bothering with the com. Mal hurried to the base of the staircase and yelled, "Follow the trajectory doc!"

They had to be quick. If they stayed suspended for more than four minutes on the Alliance routes, they would have a cruiser on their tails before they could even think 'escape'.

"I see it!" buzzed Simon's voice. "It's still moving quite fast, Jayne won't be able to take a hold of it."

Mal cursed and hurried back to the bridge. "Okay," he said taking over the controls and keeping the com open.

"Jayne, get out of the suit. We're going to swallow the cargo."

"We could have done that from the start instead of this you know!" he shouted as he quickly got out of the suit.

"We're not skilled enough with that manoeuvre but we don't got a choice now," Mal barked.

Everyone waited with baited breaths as Mal realigned the ship in the path of the container and Zoe opened the outer door.

100 feet, 40 feet, 2 feet and bam!

The container thumped into the door separating them and the vacuum that was space. Jayne quickly punched the switch to shut the outer door.

"Capture is a success captain," Zoe said, relieved. "I believe this is the first job we've completed without a single hitch!" she mocked playfully.

"Ha, ha," sneered Mal and turned to Simon. "Guess this means your sister is fine doc," he said slapping him on the back. "Get that pathetic look off your face and come on. Harry said he'll be sending a letter giving us a small update."

That got Simon up and together they hurried down to the cargo bay. They had precious cargo to check on after all.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Three weeks later**

Complete defeat was staring Harry in the face. More than a fortnight had whizzed past and River and he had practically scanned the entire planet. There were seven cities in total on the Shinon and they had travelled through each and every one of them, through every little alley that was built, even toured the sewers and journeyed through every monastery that existed.

Yet there was not even a tiny scent of magic present anywhere.

While Harry was getting depressed by the second, River was having the time of her life. She hadn't had any episodes in three weeks and she got to travel! There were very few moments when her eyes weren't wide open in wonder and mouth half open as she got drunk on the beauty of the planet. She even found the sewer system of the cities fascinating. The architecture and smoothness of the system was simply incredible. She tried to explain the magnificence of the planet to Harry but to her annoyance all he was interested in was finding magic.

Right now they were trudging down the main road in Xi'an. They had completed one rotation of the planet and now Harry wanted to enter the forests of the planet.

"It will take us nearly 300 days to explore the entire forest at the speed we're travelling at," River said as they idly walked down the road. "And that is not counting sleep or rest."

Harry glared at her. "I think it's worth a try," he said stubbornly.

"Simon will worry," she said with her trademark expressionless face. The overdose of happiness seemed to be wearing off.

Harry sighed. "Are you sure you felt nothing with your," he poked her head, "you know mind powers?"

River frowned, "No."

"Are you sure?" pressed Harry. "Most of the time you were blubbering like an infant high on sugar!"

River narrowed her eyes. "My brain functions at a level you cannot comprehend. When I say I didn't find anything _means_ I didn't find anything."

"Alright, alright," Harry grumbled, raising his arms to placate the annoyed girl. "I was just making sure."

River blinked at him and turned away. Harry took that as a sign of irritation. They followed the same path they took the last time and turned into an alley between two buildings. "When are we going to leave this planet?" she asked curiously.

"When I'm absolutely sure there's nothing here," he replied while examining the walls of the narrow gap between the buildings carefully.

"What are you doing now?"

"In my past there were magical doorways hidden in walls," he said. "I'm checking for the same."

River raised an eyebrow.

"You mean to say now you're going to feel up every structure on this planet?!"

"Uh-huh."

"Do you have any idea how long that will take?"

"Don't care," Harry replied indifferently. "And I don't want your mathematical answers either!" he added loudly interrupting River.

"Don't you want to know how much time you'll be wasting?"

"Listen River!" he said angrily, losing his temper at her attitude. He straightened up and turned around to face her but he didn't realize she was leaning over him and accidently knocked her back.

His expression changed from apologetic to shock when River hit the opposite wall hard and then just sank into it and disappeared.

His mouth dropped open and he stared at the wall dumbfounded. Had River just passed through a magical doorway? His mind kept asking but the shock of seeing it happen had rendered his body immobile.

Had River just passed through a magical doorway!? His asked himself in his mind again.

"Holy merlin!" he gasped finally and began to touch the wall where River disappeared. "River!"

There was nothing. His hands didn't feel any magic nor were they passing through the wall. "River!" he called again but there was no response.

"Dammit!" he swore banging his palm on the wall. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt a small pulse of electric charge run through his body and his hand sank in. He pulled out his hand and stared at the wall, the excitement building up in his gut.

"Could it be," he whispered and took a step back; the thrill of anticipation gushing through his blood. He closed his eyes and then he ran into the wall.

It felt like sinking into a very viscous slime. For a moment Harry felt a stab of panic fearing he was going to get stuck but then he passed through the barrier and fell at River's feet on the other side.

He glanced up, eager to see the wizarding world in the future only to have his excitement plummet at the sight on front of him.

"It's Miranda all over again," River whispered; her voice tight with anxiety.

Harry stood up slowly, his heart constricting.

If the place they had just come from was filled with life, happiness and prosperity. This was just the opposite.

Everything was different.

The buildings were smaller and clumped together in a way which screamed wizarding mentality. The roads were paved with stone and the entire atmosphere felt oppressive. Even the sky was darker and there was an unnatural chill present in the air.

The skeletal remains strewn on the ground gave a clear picture as to what might have happened here.

"Are you alright River?" Harry croaked, desperately trying to hold back the grief threatening to overwhelm him.

"I'm fine," she said, but Harry could feel her distress on his shields. If it weren't for his occlumency he knew there would be tears falling right now.

Taking a step forward felt like a mammoth task. Memories of the war and the torture he had suffered were resurfacing.

"Harry," River said softly, placing her hand on his shoulder startling him.

"I'm alright," he said heavily. "Let's just see if we can find out what happened here."

The wind masked the sound of their footsteps but the fact that they could hear it showed what a dead city this was.

River just tilted her head to one of the bodies. Most of the cloth had almost degraded but it was easy to make out the remains of the military blue uniform of the Alliance. "Judging by the state of the remains, this man died more than fifteen years ago."

River noted that unlike the remains on Miranda, the causes of death were visible on almost all the remains, some brutal and some indicating a quick death.

"You get that from this?" he asked gesturing towards the remains.

"It's not hard," River said. "I think the magic people and the Alliance had a slight disagreement."

Harry snorted. He had managed to subdue the bubbling emotions within him and was looking at the corpses with detachment. "This means that they managed to escape Earth after all," he said.

River turned her head sharply. "Escape Earth?!" she said incredulously, her mind connecting his words to all the oddities that made up the package that was Harry Potter and then her mind came to shocking conclusion.

"You!" she began but Harry just raised his hand to stop her. "Not now," he said firmly. He had just made a big mistake and he was in no mood to discuss it right now. "Let's take a look around and keep looking for anything that resembles a stick," he added.

It was with a grimace that Harry began to search all the bodies he could see. It felt wrong but it seemed that River was having no such problems. He was glad the buildings weren't too large else it would take them forever to find what he was looking for but as they went further and further on, his hopes of finding a wand kept diminishing.

The end of the street they were on opened up into a much bigger street perpendicular to it and the buildings seemed to be grander from a certain point of view.

"Just like Diagon Alley," Harry murmured.

"What's Diagonal Alley?" River asked.

"It's not diagonal," Harry corrected. "It's Diagon and it was famous magical centre. Markets, banks, lodgings, pubs, playgrounds, it was all there."

"I've never seen architecture like this," River commented in slight fascination.

"This is how structures were built in medieval England. And considering it is centuries old architecture for me it's not surprising it's been forgotten. It's only our kind that refused to evolve."

"These buildings haven't been tended to in years," River said. "And yet, they seem to be in perfect condition."

"Magic," Harry said smiling. He stopped in front of the next body that wasn't wearing an alliance uniform and began to search. The texture of the cloth felt nostalgic in his hands and he smiled ruefully. "Even their fashion sense hadn't changed," he muttered shaking his head.

"Harry look," River said.

"What?"

She pointed ahead and it seemed that the street broadened drastically some fifty feet in front of them.

"The emperor's square," River read on a stone sign board. It was a large open area and it was surrounded by a single arc shaped building. In the centre of the area was a broken down statue and Harry was dreading having to identify it. He prayed against all odds that it wasn't a statue of whom he thought it was.

It was.

Lord Voldemort's handsome face built out of stone stared up at him from the ground.

"God no," Harry moaned. "He survived!"

"That's Voldemort isn't it?" River asked.

Harry just nodded. Suddenly the whole mystery behind the death of all these people was beginning to make sense. If Voldemort was alive then seeing dead people everywhere always made sense.

A piece of paper trapped in the currents of the wind startled the two of them and they were ready to fight in an instant.

"Just a piece of paper," Harry said wearily and then, calmly, he proceeded to stamp on his enemies face. "Stupid moronic dark lord," he growled his face getting angrier and angrier as he tried to smash the statues face in. All the sorrow and anger that he had buried inside him was finally bubbling out and then he let out a blood curdling scream. "Why did this son of a bitch have to survive? WHY!" he sobbed.

River felt pity well up inside her at the sight of him. Turned away from him she snatched the floating paper and her eyes widened when she saw what was on it.

"Harry."

Breathing heavily after working all his frustration on the now broken face, Harry turned to River. "What?"

She just handed him the paper.

_By order of the Alliance, all non-humans are to visit the nearest registration facility. Failure to comply will result in severe action._

"What the hell is this?"

"The Alliance discovered the existence of magical beings and wanted to experiment on them," River said voicing the various scenarios running through her mind. "Or Voldemort decided to wage war on them too and they were destroyed."

"Not possible," Harry immediately countered. "Voldemort can't be beaten. He's immortal. What I don't understand is why he didn't take over long before itself. What the hell just happened to the wizarding world after I was gone?!" he said in frustration.

River just looked at him strangely.

Voldemort lose? It felt like just thinking it was forbidden. It was impossible! How can man, no monster that lived for over six hundred years lose to mere muggles!?

"River," Harry said slowly. "Voldemort can't lose and he can't be killed."

"Why?"

"If you know where I'm from, then you know how old he is. And you can't even imagine how powerful he was at that time itself. It's because of him I am where I am now, you know that."

"So you really are from the Earth that was," she breathed. She walked up to him and touched his cheek like she was examining something incredible. "Are you an immortal?"

"No," Harry said uncomfortably as she trailed her fingers on his skin. "And stop doing that!" he snapped stepping away from her.

River settled for staring at him in fascination.

"What do I do now?" he asked helplessly.

River bent at the hip to examine one of the remains not wearing an alliance uniform. "Multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and his leg was blown off," she mumbled while brushing her hair out of her face. She frowned as her eyes flickered from the alliance soldiers to the wizards and witches. "It's odd, "she said. "It seems like the magic people died much before the Alliance soldiers."

Harry's eyes focused on River's posterior in spite of the seriousness of the situation. "Err… What?" he stammered and quickly moved in front of her where he got another eyeful.

"The remains of the magic people seem to be older than the Alliance soldiers," she repeated, oblivious to Harry's roving eye balls.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"They died at drastically different times," she replied straightening out gracefully. "But the evidence around us suggests there was a battle so they couldn't have died at such different times."

"How much time are we talking about here?"

"A year or less," River said.

"Huh. That is strange," Harry said, mystified. "But how does this help us?"

"The flyer said registration facilities. The next logical step would be to research when the Alliance made registration compulsory for normal residents and start working our way up looking for oddities."

Harry sighed. This is was not how he expected his reunion with the magical world to be. He had hoped Voldemort was gone and the witches and wizards had prospered in the future but it was not to be. The war had followed him into the far future or he had followed the war. He didn't know which one it was but one thing was for sure.

He was never going to be rid of death and destruction.

"Let's get out of here," he said tiredly. "I don't think I can take looking at these bodies anymore."

"Don't you want to keep looking for the magic sticks?" River asked.

"There's nothing here," Harry said glumly. "If there was then I'm almost a hundred percent sure the Alliance cleaned out this whole place. There aren't even any muggle weapons here."

"Probably to research magic," River agreed.

Harry just sighed. "Let's go."

"And much, much more," she whispered into the wind staring at the head of Voldemort.

"River come on!" Harry yelled.

Next destination: The Alliance archive building. Every core planet had one and it wouldn't be hard to enter with their identification. They only had to hope that their research would not raise any red flags.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**2 Weeks Later**

The roar of the engines of Serenity felt like music to Harry and River's ears. They had contacted the ship after landing on Ariel and they were lucky that the ship was close by. They had just finished up a job which almost led to Mal getting his head blown off.

It had been a long trip and both were filled with a sense of relief and excitement at being back home. Harry didn't even realize that he now recognized Serenity as home.

They had changed their appearance back to normal with the only defect being that River's hair was still short although it was in the process of growing.

"River!" Simon cried rushing out of the still opening cargo hold and crushed his little sister against his chest. Harry grinned at the over protective brother.

"Harry, River," called Zoe smiling warmly, followed by Mal and the rest of the crew. Hugs and manly hugs were exchanged.

"I see you didn't keep up the disguise," Mal commented.

"It was becoming a drag," Harry confessed. "I found myself missing my real identity."

"It's good to have you back," Jayne grunted.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Really?'

Jayne shrugged. "Kaylee forced me to say it."

Harry laughed and Kaylee tried to help River untangle Simon from her.

"It's good to be back," Harry said with a happy sigh. He looked around and frowned at the absence of one of the crew.

"Where's Inara?" he asked.

"Work," Mal grunted. Harry detected resentment in the captain's voice and didn't press the matter.

"Did you find any gorram freaks?" Jayne asked, at his direct and insensitive best.

Harry stilled.

"Why don't we get back in the air and I'll tell you all about it," he said grimly.

The tone of his voice said it all. They had found something and it wasn't for the better.

"Fire her up Zoe," Mal barked. He was really interested to know what Harry had to say. His stories were always fascinatingly unbelievable.

"She's already fired up captain," Zoe said dryly. "She was never even fired down."

"Yes, well... umm... take her up then!"

"Real smooth captain," Zoe laughed and headed to the bridge.

Simon refused to let go of River and dragged her to the infirmary. He was determined to make sure nothing had happened to her.

"She's fine Simon," Harry said exasperatedly. "The only damage her body would have undergone is overconsumption of chocolates!"

"That's true," River said seriously. "My sugar levels could have increased a lot."

A brief look of panic crossed Simon's face. "I have to take some blood samples," he mumbled under his breath while preparing the syringe.

Harry rolled his eyes and left River to suffer from her brother's over protectiveness.

Once they a good distance away from Ariel, Mal called everyone into the galley. "So let's hear it," he said to Harry.

And so Harry told them the tale about their venture into Alliance territory with River helpfully interjecting and correcting Harry every now and then. He told them about the job, the betrayal of Fanty and Mingo's source which nearly led to Simon having a heart attack.

"Relax Simon," River said comfortingly. "I think I killed just one of them."

"That's not comforting at all!" he said while protesting against Kaylee's attempts to get him to sit down.

On the other hand Simon was glad that his sister seemed more at ease after all this time and was talking more often. He was now recognizing the River he remembered before the Alliance got a hold of her and he knew Harry was to thank for some of that.

When Harry reached the part about his wandless magic Jayne had been most impressed. Blasting someone away with magic, that was just cool.

A few laughs were exchanged when Harry told them about his search over the planet and how irritable River had been. Kaylee gasped when Harry arrived at the climax of his story.

"You found them!" Kaylee gasped.

"Yes," Harry said heavily. "But it wasn't the way I'd hoped."

"They were all dead," River said.

Harry left out the bit about him being from the Earth and had instructed River to stay quiet for the moment. He wasn't ready for that piece of information about him to be known yet.

"Alliance?" Mal asked darkly. His hand closed around his pistol as his hate for those men bubbled to the surface.

"There appeared to be a battle and it seems one side was annihilated," Harry muttered.

"Hold on a minute," Jayne interrupted. "How can bunch of people with guns, with not even advanced weaponry defeat a bunch of people with freaky powers along with their boss who apparently has super freaky powers!?"

"I don't know," Harry snapped. "I don't know anything! The only thing that I do know is that some military guy named Durran Haymer was involved in this whole registration crap!"

River frowned at Jayne's statement. It was strange that all the magic folk seemed to be killed by bullets. Why didn't the Alliance use any of their highly sophisticated weapons?

Harry anger faded when he saw the incredulous looks he was getting.

"Did you say Durran Haymer?" Zoe asked, holding her breath.

"Yes," Harry said. "And I need to find him and talk to him to find out what happened to my kind!"

"Mal," Zoe said, straining against letting a grin stretch on her face. It would insensitive to smile when Harry was talking about the destruction of his kind of people but she just could not help it.

"NO! Don't say it!" Mal said firmly.

"Don't say what?" Harry asked.

"Durran Haymer's wife," River chirped.

Harry noticed she was back in her favourite dress. "Wife?"

"River!" Mal cried in dismay. He hated hearing that word.

"Okay what did I miss?" Harry asked.

"It's a long story," Kaylee said smirking, "But Mr. Haymer's wife, is also the captain's wife."

"Huh?"

"And Monty's wife too," Zoe added helpfully earning a dirty look from Mal.

"And if you want to get into his house and talk to the man then you're going to need her help," Jayne said with a broad smile.

"This cannot be happening," Mal groaned.

"In simple terms we need to speak to YoSaffBridge," Zoe summed up while patting Mal on his back.

Mal just let his head thump into the table.

Harry just stared at everyone, bemused. "YoSaffBridge?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Review :)**

**A/N:** Yolanda is back!

Pointing out mistakes is helpful. Thanks for reading.

**PS: **The picture for the story is a somewhat blonde River!


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